DENVER \u2014 It seems a bit ridiculous to work out the \u201cplayoff math\u201d for a club that\u2019s in last place in the Eastern Conference, but it\u2019s beneficial to understand what the Columbus Blue Jackets are up against the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
Yes, the Blue Jackets are \u201conly\u201d 7 points behind the Buffalo Sabres, who hold the second wild-card spot in the East. But the Sabres, who have been one of the NHL\u2019s hottest clubs since early December, are on pace to finish with 97 points.<\/p>\n
To meet that pace at the finish line, the Blue Jackets would need to earn 54 points in their final 39 games, or a record in the neighborhood of 25-10-4.<\/p>\n
The most immediate issue with that, of course, is that the Blue Jackets have shown only sporadic bursts of being close to the club that narrowly missed the postseason one year ago. There\u2019s not much time to get that fixed.<\/p>\n
And on Saturday comes the most significant challenge the NHL has to offer.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets play the Colorado Avalanche at 4 p.m. (ET) in Ball Arena. The Avs (32-4-7) are on pace to set an NHL record for most standings points in a season, and they have yet to lose in regulation at home (18-0-2).<\/p>\n
When the Blue Jackets hosted the Avs on Oct. 16 in Nationwide Arena, the Jackets actually felt they played pretty well for most of the game \u2026 and they lost 4-1. Colorado just had too much jam that night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re clearly the best team in the league,\u201d Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. \u201cThe record shows it. They\u2019re doing a lot of amazing things up to this point, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, we don\u2019t care who we\u2019re playing tomorrow. We better be desperate, right? I mean, we put our skates on the same as they do. So let\u2019s go compete our asses off and see where we sit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets had a short practice Friday at the University of Denver\u2019s Joy Burns Arena, after which Evason confirmed Elvis Merzlikins, who hasn\u2019t started a game since Dec. 20, will get the nod Saturday versus the Avs.<\/p>\n
It makes sense given the schedule and the recent goalie rotation, which hasn\u2019t been much of one.<\/p>\n
Greaves, who has ascended to the starter\u2019s role, has started the last eight games, the longest run of his NHL career. Also, the Blue Jackets face a road back-to-back \u2014 they play in Utah on Sunday \u2014 to end the trip.<\/p>\n
Still, it figures to be a daunting task for Merzlikins to face the Avs after nearly three weeks without facing live pucks.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also this: Among the NHL goaltenders with enough playing time to qualify for the league leaders, Merzlikins is 54th out of 61 with an .877 save percentage and 61st (last) in goals-against average (4.04).<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets will have to defend better than they have all season, certainly better than they defended in Thursday\u2019s 5-3 loss in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
To that end, Evason elevated the Blue Jackets\u2019 top defensive forward, Charlie Coyle, to the No. 1 line, where he skated at right wing with center Adam Fantilli and winger Kirill Marchenko, who switched to the left side.<\/p>\n
Coyle, who finished last season with the Avalanche after being traded by Boston at the trade deadline, knows what the Blue Jackets are up against this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe I know a little bit more what to expect,\u201d Coyle said. \u201cBut we all know what they bring and how they\u2019re doing this year, how fast they are, how much firepower they have.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a really good opportunity for us, a great test. We have no choice but to bring our \u2018A\u2019 game (Saturday), and that\u2019s going to bring out the best in us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets acquired Coyle and forward Miles Wood from the Avalanche over the summer in exchange for fourth-line youngster Gavin Brindley and two draft picks. Wood, who suffered a lower-body injury on New Year\u2019s Eve, won\u2019t play Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets\u2019 No. 2 line, which has been missing in action most of the season, was the most productive in Thursday\u2019s game versus Vegas. Boone Jenner had a goal and an assist, Kent Johnson ended a 15-game goal drought and Sean Monahan had two assists.<\/p>\n
Monahan, who has been playing through an injury all season, did not skate Friday in Denver, but he\u2019s expected to play Saturday, Evason said.<\/p>\n
Now the Blue Jackets need to get Fantilli going. He\u2019s gone 10 games without a goal, the second-longest streak of his young career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve watched some video and chatted, and, you know, he\u2019s a guy who\u2019s very aware of it,\u201d Evason said. \u201cBut when he has success, he does the right things more on the defensive end than the offensive end, and that allows his skill set to come forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe needs to get back to that, to getting inside and not being so outside, not so perimeter. He\u2019s aware of it, and we expect him to do that, and we expect him to produce when he gets those opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 It seems a bit ridiculous to work out the \u201cplayoff math\u201d for a club that\u2019s in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,3936,575,85],"class_list":["post-404843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}