Cystal Ball, point predicition time!

The 16 teams that made the playoffs last season on average scored 233 goals. The high being the 262 scored by the Montreal Canadiens while the low was the Anaheim Ducks notching just 205.

The Columbus Blue Jackets scored just 193 goals which was the worst in the league.

There were many dissapointments last year - espeically when you consider what the starting 6 scored last season:

Nash (38) Fedorov (11) Vyborny (7)
Zherdev (26) Peca (8) Modin(6)

That is a grand total of 96 goals. Obviously not nearly good enough. Both Vyborny and Modin had horrible seasons for their own reasons.

In fact the Jackets had just 5 players in double digit goal scoring in Nash (38), Zherdev (26), Chimera (14), Fritsche (11) & Manny (10). So 3 of our top 5 goal scorers were 3rd to 4th line guys -- again not good enough.

Here are the goal totals from last year for our projected top 6 this season:

Nash (38) Umberger (13) Huselius (25)
Modin (6) Brassard (1) Torres (5)

That total is actually a drop from last season with 88 goals but Brassard only played 17 games in a reduced role. If you throw Peca's 8 in there we are still 2 less goals than the previous top 6.

So what gives? Where do the Jackets get the extra 35 - 40 goals needed to be on par with playoff teams offensively?

To start with the Jackets must get a healthy year out of Modin -- same with Torres. Brassard is going to have to step up and the Nash-Umberger-Huselius line is going to need to produce. The bottom 6 will also need to chip in more than they did this past season as well as the defense will need to score more than the 24 they produced combined last year. Finally there needs to be a surprise whether it be Brassard, Vorack, Filatov, Russell or a guy like York producing much more than expected.

Without further adu here are my point predictions for the 2008-2009 season:

Rick Nash - 42g, 35a for 77p
Kristian Huselius - 24g 52a for 76p
RJ Umberger - 18g 41a for 59p
Fredrik Modin - 23g 21a for 44p
Derick Brassard - 12g 28a for 40p
Michael Peca - 11g 23a for 34p
Jakub Voracek - 15g 14a for 29p
Kris Russell - 8g 21a for 29p
Jason Chimera - 13g 14a for 27p
Raffi Torres - 14g 11a for 25p
Michael York - 6g 15p for 21p
Fedor Tyutin - 7g 14a for 21p
Kristian Backman - 4g 14a for 18p
Mike Commodore - 3g 13a for 16p
Manny Malhotra - 5g 10a for 15p
Rusty Klesla - 5g 10p for 15p
Nikita Filatov - 8g 5a for 13p
Jared Boll - 7g 5a for 13p
Andrew Murray - 4g 8a for 13p
Jan Hejda - 1g 11a for 12p
Craig MacDonald - 2g 8a for 10p
Derek Dorsett - 2g 3a for 6p
Tom Sestito - 2g 1 for 3p
OK Tollefsen - 1g 2a for 3p
Derek MacKenzie - 2g 0a for 2p
Aaron Rome - 1g 1a for 2p
Pascal Leclaire - 0g 2a for 2p

Total goals scored: 241

Just a couple of thoughts when I was putting this together.

* Mike York beats our Jiri Novonty for a spot and he's waived
* Kris Russell has a monster year
* Both Derick Brassard and Jakub Voracek make strong contributions
* Fredrick Modin has a strong bounce back year and stays relatively healthy
* Scoring is spread around and 9 guys hit double digits in goals scored
* Nikita Filatov indeeds spends some time on the big team and add some much needed scoring punch
* Playing between Nash and Huselius RJ Umberger has a career best 59 points
* Nash and Hueselius put up similar numbers to last season

I will be the first to admit that this is a very optimistic look - especially for the rookies. Even if I'm off by 20 goals that still puts us in the hunt especially if our defense plays as well as it did last season. That Jackets are going to need to find some quick chemistry and we need guys like Brassard, Vorack and Russell to make impacts.

We also need health on our side in a big way.

Discuss - what are your point predictions for the season?

-LTL