Late Strides

Seemingly inspired by the lure of the off-season, the Jackets have been on a tear. Modin and Vyborny have been carryign the team. Modin has scored in three straight games and now has 22 goals tralinig Nash for the team lead by two goals. Vyborny continues to lead the team with 64 points. Wins over Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis has the team riding on a mini-streak of 3 games.

Hitchcock has them playing hard at season's end, making a run at St. Louis for the 10th spot in the conference. To keep things in perspective, Colorado right now sits in 9th place and has 14 points more than Columbus, who trails St. Louis by only 3 points.

Rebounds: The Blue Jackets are 21-1-4 when leading after two periods. This season David Vyborny scored 11 points (1 goal and 10 assists) against St. Louis.

Winding Down

As another blah season rolls to a close, we can focus on what the team needs to do next season. Tonight the team defeated the Blackhawks 5-2. The team's most valuable player, David Vyborny, played another stellar game, serving up assists on each of Modin's two second period goals.

The failure of the young guns has been a theme for the season. Rick Nash and Nikolai Zherdev have underperformed this season, playing well below expectation. Gil Brule will no longer be given slack next season. All three young stars must be better for the Jackets to succeed. They are a combined -41 ... a staggering number symbolizing
their poor defensive play.

Hitchcock have the team playing at roughly a .500 clip. A slight improvement, but not competitive hockey every night. If the team can fight into the 11th slot of the conference, it would be a good start on next season. Next season is all that we have too look forward to... again.