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In an already lousy season, CBJ can’t catch a break.
The downfall of the season started in Tampere, Finland, as Patrik Laine and Joonas Korpisalo returned to their homeland to play the defending Stanley Cup Champions the Colorado Avalanche. Now don’t get me wrong there were signs of life throughout the 2 game series, but CBJ ultimately lost by a pretty defining margin.
To top off the 2 losses, they also lost one of the best passers in the league, an important veteran presence Jakub Voracek to an upper-body injury, and no timetable to return.
Before the Blue Jackets returned back to Columbus, Tampere native Patrik Laine conducted an interview stating that he wished this trip never happened and that it was embarrassing.
At least Laine didn’t leave the crowd empty-handed as he finished with 1-1-2 in the 2-game Finish series.
After getting home from Finland, the Blue Jackets had a 5-day break to refresh and collect themselves, to look forward to the upcoming games.
Well, we at least hoped that was the case.
The Blue Jackets returned to action facing the Philadelphia Flyers, and I have to say this game was the best that they’ve skated all season as the game went down to the wire, but Columbus pulled out at the end winning 5-2.
Most will get excited, and positive because they got back in the win column, but I have some bad news.
Alternate Captain and star defenseman, Zach Werenski suffered a season-ending injury, by tearing his labrum and hitting the boards on a missed check.
The best defenseman on an already bad defensive team has gone down, but the injuries don’t stop there as the young sparkplug Nick Blankenburg finished the game, but later found out that he has a broken ankle, and the other young defenseman, Adam Boqvist broke his foot.
Ok ok, they lost their best defensemen let’s give the system guys a chance to step up and make a name for themselves… Right?
That’s the perfect mindset to have.
Columbus then traveled to New York to face the Islanders and look to escape with 2 points, and get back on track.
And they played great. Even though the game was lost in overtime 4-3, and promising defenseman Marcus Bjork made his NHL debut and got a goal in his first game.
It was awesome to see this team overcome adversity and get out with a point.
But what’s not so awesome is seeing star forward Patrik Laine, go down with an ankle injury leaving him out 3 to 4 weeks. And veteran defenseman Eric Gudbranson goes out with an upper-body injury leaving him dtd.
So with 4 defensemen out and 4 forwards out it’s safe to say that CBJ is in the dumps, and might be time to start looking forward to next year, by getting a high draft pick.
The Morning Skate 