Friday, February 03, 2006

Beware the Blue Jackets!

The General Manager has a new long term deal, the coach has what may be the hottest team in the league since Boxing Day and now everyone in the Western Division is looking in the rear view mirror as the Columbus Blue Jackets close up some valuable territory.

Thursday night, the Blue Jackets won again, this time an overtime shoot out victory over the Edmonton Oilers. Jason Chimera, gained a measure of revenge on his old team as he put away the winning goal for Columbus in the eighth round of the shoot out session.

The win, the Blue Jackets fifth in a row, suddenly has the boys from Columbus believing in themselves once again. Since Christmas the Blue Jackets have lost only six games and have quickly, become one of those teams you don't necessarilly want to face something not many folks would have though prior to the Christmas holidays.

They're still a fair bit away from a playoff spot, but should the run continue they may make things interesting as the final weeks of the season arrive. They sit at eighteen points out of the final playoff spot, held by tonights losers the Oilers. Now it's going to take a fair amount of good fortune to keep rattling off wins while the teams above stumble, but at least now the Blue Jackets have something to aim for. And if nothing else they can play a huge spoiler role as the season heads to the playoffs.

The Blue Jackets travel on to Vancouver next as they continue their tour of Canada's West, meeting the injured and enigmatic Canucks on Monday night. Considering Vancouver's troubles of late with the teams that they should beat. Monday night may be quite interesting.

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