Season Review: Columbus Blue Jackets

Well, now that people are talking playoffs, I will be reviewing the seasons of teams as they're either eliminated from the playoffs or eliminated from playoff contention before the end of the season. Obviously, the last team reviewed will be the one that wins the Cup.

Now the second team to be eliminated from playoff contention: The Columbus Blue Jackets.

Season expectations: The team was coming off of their first playoff appearance in franchise history. The team had a strong emerging goaltender, their star forward finally having the right complements, and a coaching system they could believe in. Sure the Central Division was tough but holy hell these guys were able to be better than both the St. Louis Blues and the Nashville Predators last season and with Detroit having injuries out of the gate, these guys could challenge for one of the best spots in the division and probably at least a playoff spot... right?

My prediction: I figured the Blue Jackets would have finished third in their division and 7th in the Western Conference.

The truth: The Blue Jackets were officially eliminated from playoff contention this evening as a result of the Detroit Red Wings' victory over the Minnesota Wild. They were the second team eliminated from playoff contention in both the conference and the league.

What went wrong?: You mean besides their month of December, when they went 2-9-5?

While injuries were a problem for the Blue Jackets, all signs indicate that Ken Hitchcock lost the room with his style of coaching. This especially held true once prized prospect Nikita Filatov decided to spend the season in Russia because he and Hitchcock couldn't get along. Once it became apparent that the team wasn't going to respond to his game plans any longer, the team designated assistant coach Claude Noel to be their interim head coach. The team responded fairly well under him, at least playing at a .500 level of respectability or better, but injuries and inconsistent play from the young guys proved to be too much to overcome once the December death spiral occurred.

Another factor in the collapse of their season was the "sophomore slump" experienced by both Steve Mason and Derrick Brassard. In Mason's case, he went from winning the Calder Trophy last season for Best Rookie to having a save percentage that's sub .900 and a goals against average that's above 3. In Brassard's case, he's had a respectable season with putting up 33 points in 71 games, but he put up 25 points in 31 games for the team last season, and watched his plus/minus drop from +12 to -16. Sure, playing on a subpar team has that effect, but when it gets to double digits, the player has to assume some responsibility.

While the team's top-six did admirably (five of them got over 46 points over the season with Antoine Vermette and Nash earning 60 points or better), their defense was not entirely up to task. While Anton Stralman and Kris Russell had excellent seasons for the team, both of them shouldn't have been the two that pushed to lead the defense in scoring, largely because of their inexperience. No one else aside from Fedor Tyutin was capable to providing any defensive scoring for the team. Considering how crucial that is for success, that's definitely something that contributed to their downfall.

So what's next?: The team will get a lottery pick for one of the top three at this point. I don't think they're too far removed from heading back into the post-season for next year, though, and think they could look at the situation for Los Angeles and take inspiration from it. If they can find a way to have the same score-by-committee mindset with attention to defensive detail, then a better season from Mason could put them back into a respectable place.