Columbus Blue Jackets: Are Hitch and the Boys Ready for Prime Time?

Hockey’s regular season is down to a few short weeks remaining.

It is exciting! For the first time in many years, I really care about the race to see who makes it in, and who has the offseason to re-tool.

The sun is setting on another NHL regular season, and the sun begins to rise on another, the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to do everything humanly possible to win.

Your mission is to turn childhood dreams into reality.

Your goal is to skate faster, shoot harder, check with more vigor, and play with more intensity.

Your job is to do your family, yourself, and your teammates proud. You WILL lace up those skates, you WILL battle hard and you WILL bleed, for you are among the final 16 teams left standing.

Your only goal now is to win the most cherished trophy in all of sport—the Stanley Cup.

Each year, as the season winds down and the dust begins to settle ever so slightly, all NHL teams will ultimately find themselves falling into one of four possible categories, each of which contains certain characteristics and similarities with each other:

1. First, there are those teams that have already made the playoffs, having locked in a berth two weeks ago (Detroit with 105 points and San Jose with 104 points).
   
   In some cases, they will have clinched a division title as well, as is the case with San Jose.
   
   
2. Second, you have the teams who are playing some good hockey and are in the first through fourth slots within their division.
   
   Teams like Washington, New Jersey, Calgary, and Chicago all have solid point totals.  In many cases they still may move up or down in the standings, but chances of them falling out of the playoff race are relatively slim.
   
   
3. Third, you have your teams that are scraping and fighting for every point they can get. Teams like the NY Rangers, Montreal, St. Louis, and Minnesota. They are often at the tail end of the playoff picture, hovering around the seventh through tenth slots.
   
   Depending on what night of the week it is, it’s conceivable a couple of teams move back INTO the playoff race, and as a result, a couple of OTHER teams get pushed down the ladder out of the playoff picture.
   
   
4. Fourth, and the least popular of the categories to find yourself in, are the teams who fell out of the race a long time ago. Often teams in this category are considered “sellers” in terms of openly shopping one or more players on their teams, often for draft picks in hopes that next year, next year will be different indeed.
   
   Teams falling into that category include Tampa Bay, the NY Islanders, Phoenix, and Colorado.
   

For the first time in the franchise's existence, the Columbus Blue Jackets are a legitimate playoff team. So much so that for the first year ever, Columbus was a buyer—going out and grabbing Antoine Vermette from the somewhat rejuvenated (but still lacklustre) Senators.

Columbus is playing with a great deal of consistency. This has been one of their biggest criticisms since inception. Being able to string together three wins in a row seemed to be a challenge as seemingly difficult as proving that water wasn’t wet.

Just this month alone they have dealt loses to the Red Wings, Bruins, Penguins, and Black Hawks. These teams are all at or near the top of their respective divisions. No longer do the Blue Jackets get taken for granted as they once did.

If one had to point to a particular player as being the lynchpin to their success, it’s a no-brainer. Or it used to be a no-brainer. This year is different.

In most other years, Rick Nash would have automatically been the answer. Make no mistake. If you don’t follow the midwest or Central Division, you only know Rick Nashfor his highlight-reel goals on nightly episodes of Sportscenter, Sport Night, Sport Monkey, or whatever show you watch to get your fix.

While he is having a “good” year by his standards (67 points in 68 games, effectively a point per game guy), one need only look to the crease for the answer to their success this year.

Rookie Steve Mason has been spectacular. After seeing little puck last year, and starting the season on the end of a scope at the OR, Mason has taken over the blue paint for the Jackets. On more than one occasion he has put that team on his back, kept the score from getting out of control as the defense seemingly parted the seas in front of him, made another timely save, and gave them the opportunity to compete for the win.

And this kid is barely out of training pants!

He has shown night in and night out that he ain’t no fluke. Hence, the Jackets were able to part ways with oft-injured Pascal LeClaire. Pascal was a great goalie, and at face value some think that Howson gave up too much for Vermette. Simply put, were Pascal to be able to stay healthy for more then three months at a time, the team was not “big” enough for both he and Mason.

In a league where the platoon goal-tending scenario seems to be ever more accepted, I don’t sense that it was going to work in Columbus. Veteran and youth goalies seem to be able to coexist, while two goalies that are nearer each other in age and in terms of overall “tending prime”—not so much.

So the team made the best move they could and frankly, I am happy with their outcome thus far. Vermette has been on the score sheet virtually every night they have played so they are getting an immediate return on their investment. And Mason, already blooming with confidence, should feel even more comfortable now that the Jackets are his team, and they will go as far as he can take them.

In terms of where the Blue Jackets fit in right now in terms of the playoff race, I suggest that they fall somewhere in the two or three range. One could suggest two from the perspective that the team has been playing great hockey as of late and would have to be considered a legitimate threat to be taken seriously by Detroit, San Jose, and Calgary alike.

At the same time, one might counter argue that because of the past history, the Jackets may better be referred to as a three. They have, let’s face it, never played in the post season and in all reality, are one key injury (Steve Mason) away from being a team on the outside looking in. After a 5-0 drubbing last night of the Flames, I am ready to say they may be for real.

Make no mistake about it. Mason is the franchise right now, more so then Nash himself. And while he can’t outright win the game for them, he can certainly hold up his end of the bargain night in and night out, and do virtually everything but.

Additions like the pick up of Chris Gratton went almost unnoticed. No longer the thundering checker who topped out at 62 points twice in his career, Gratton was a good move, if for no other reason then to ensure there was a viable centre should they not make any deadline moves (as they did to acquire Vermette).

Raffi Torres, although injured for the majority of the year, seems to be hitting a bit of a stride now. Recently potting two goals in the last few minutes of a come from behind win over the Panthers, Torres seems to be finding his grip and getting comfortable with his linemates Mike Peca at centre and Andy Murray on the right side.

I often pondered the value of Peca, once seen as a lightening rod who could ignite the fire within his team with a tenacious hit, or even a good scrap often with someone inches taller and pounds heavier. He has surprised me a bit by showing glimmers of that old feisty, gritty player who put fear in the opponents' eyes.

RJ Umberger has fit in nicely. Once a Buckeye in his college days, RJ at 26, is still developing that scoring touch. He isn’t quite Rick Nashthe second yet, but he is certainly capable of some highlight-caliber goals of his own.

Umberger made his mark last year in the playoff as a result of his production with the Philadelphia Flyers, and the Jackets made him a “wanted man” in their eyes. Kristian

Huselius has been everything the team had hoped for. Not quite a point per game guy just yet, Huselius has really bought into Hitchcock’s system and taken an interest in his own two way game. His ability to get back to help out the defense has impressed the coach and no doubt helped buy him an additional shift or two each game as a result.

There were two hot young rookie prospects who were fighting to make the team at the beginning of the season, Jakub Voracekand Derick Brassard. Both played their way onto the team to start the season. Unfortunately for Brassard, in what would be considered a case of pure dumb luck at the 31-game mark, separated his shoulder in what would be his first and last tussle of the 2009 campaign, throwing haymakers with James Neal of the Dallas Stars.  The injury required surgery and relegated him to the sidelines for the remainder of the year.

Make no mistake though, Brassard was the clear number one centre on the team. His return to the lineup next year will solidify a team that, should they be able to re-sign Vermette, will have depth and youth up the middle of the ice that they had been lacking for some time now.

This is what the loyal fan base have been waiting for since the team first stepped foot onto a clean sheet of ice at the beautiful Taj Mahal fans and report staff alike know to be Nationwide Arena. This brand new facility, not unlike the home town crowds, has been itching to host a first ever playoff game.

The Jackets still hold the dubious distinction of not having ever laced up the skates to play in a playoff game. This year, the buzz in the locker room is different. At this point in prior years, the most exciting aspect of the team was watching to see just how many little balls they would get.

With just eight games remaining on the schedule, the Columbus Blue Jackets currently sit in sixth spot in the Western division. The team is in the process of setting new franchise records in both wins and overall points. Columbus has 85 points, six more than the team in ninth spot on the outside looking in.

Still, the naysayers are creeping. Can they avoid imploding and finally reach the post season? How many times have we wondered if this was the year only to see the team turn tail, let their little tails hit the floor, and saunter away knowing their role in the NHL, that of bumbling midwest team that no one wants to play for. You know, the team who had top-tier players at two positions, but then a bunch of journeymen.

What makes a champion? Is it pure skill and talent? Ask the Rangers or Wings—it doesn’t HURT, but it isn’t going to take home the Cup at the end of the day.

It’s the goal scorers, the guys who aren’t concerned about their daytime-emmy good looks and go hard to the corners. It’s a sprinkling of veterans who have been to the dance and both taken home the prize, AND who have been so close that they could almost taste it.

It’s an exciting time for the Blue Jackets. The world is their oyster. They are masters of their own destiny. If Mason stays big, the defense remains capable, guys like Vermette and Huselius fill their support roles as they are expected to, the big kid from Brampton Ontario is gonna get them over the hump.

The cast is not that of a band of superstars. It’s not exactly a group of misfits who have been cast off the island either. Let’s not go so far as to try and create the Bad News Bears identity either. There are some quality hockey players on this team.

What they have simply not been able to do is put together a string of great hockey that convinces many hockey fans (especially Canadians) that Winnipeg doesn’t deserve a hockey team, and Columbus could be a Stanley Cup Champion.