Oh Mase.. turn that frown upside-down... You've been letting goals like that in all season. We are used to it by now -- you should be as well!
We've all heard of the Stanley Cup hangover right? You know when teams who made it to the cup finals last year come out the following season and struggle?
Is it possible to have a first round 4 game sweep hangover?
With the Jackets losing 21 of their past 24 including 13 straight on the road I'm here to tell you it's possible!
Honestly I watched about 15 minutes of that game last night. Caught some of the first as I flipped during commercial breaks of the some real hockey (i.e. WJCs) and then flipped back right after Russell scored to make it 4-3. At that point I thought hmm.. we may have a game here.
Wrong.
The wheels proceeded to completely fall off and then I proceeded to call it a night after the 2nd period.
I wasn't going to let the Jackets ineptitude ruin USA's glory on this night. I went to bed with a gold medal winning smile on my face.
By all accounts the Jackets went down without so much of a whimper. No shock there.
So the Jackets sit with an overall record of 15-20-9 with 39 points. That is good for 14th in the Western Conference and tied for 3rd worst in the entire league. They are 14 points out of the 8th playoff position.
My guess is that those who hadn't yet accepted the team's reality this season by now are waking up this morning coming to grips with the inevitable.
Trust me when you do finally accept it.... it makes watching these games so much more bearable and the heartburn magically disappears.
No sense getting worked up if the guys on the ice aren't going to.
Depressing? I was depressed about 3 weeks ago... now I'm just thinking about how best to set the Jackets table for next season.
It's time to stop looking at how far they are from the playoffs and how close they are to a top 3 draft pick because that is where the real talent stops in this year's draft. If they want to trade their 1st round pick for some legitimate help for next year or continue down the draft/development path that has been oh so fruitful then a top 3 pick is where they want to end up.
At the very worst they need to finish in the top 5 where they at least have a chance at moving up to 1 in the lottery.
No man's land... i.e. picks 6 through 13... are a worst case scenario.
I know what a lot of you are thinkin... how can you root for these guys to lose?
To be honest I'm not rooting for them to lose... they are taking care of that one all by themselves. All I'm saying is that if we are going to tank a season then go "all in" and tank the MFer the right way and at least get an asset we can use for next season.
I know what else you're thinkin... these guys will find a way to go on a needless run at the end up the year and even screw up their draft position.
We can't allow that Jackets fans!
New T-Shirt slogan: the dive for five starts now!
-LTL
