Jackets need playoff intensity vs. Hurricanes
There are plenty of reasons for skepticism regarding any conversation around the Blue Jackets potentially, maybe, resurrecting a season that hasn’t lived up to anyone’s standards through 30 of 56 games.
It’s fitting, then, that any hope of the Jackets making the postseason likely will sway significantly in a four-game stretch against the Carolina Hurricanes that began Thursday in Raleigh. The Jackets believe they must deliver the type of playoff intensity they’ll need though the end of the regular season, in early May.
“It’s a very important week for us coming up,” defenseman Seth Jones said Wednesday. “We want to go in there and play hard, play together and play with confidence and try to get a few wins.”
After Thursday’s game, the Jackets and Hurricanes will meet three more times in the next seven days. It marks the only time this season — and likely ever in a regular season — the Jackets will play this many games in a row against the same opponent.
In the scheduling oddity that is the 2020-21 season, back-to-back games have created a tension between teams that at times has stuck a similar feeling to the competitive hatred that can fester between teams in a playoff series. Similarly, Jackets games against Tampa Bay have become tense affairs based on the teams’ postseason history the past two years.
“When you play a team four times within a week or a week and half, you remember some plays and it just gets you in that frame of mind where they might get one on you or vice versa, and nobody’s wanting to give an inch,” Columbus captain Nick Foligno said. “That’s kind of how this season’s gone.”
The Jackets and Hurricanes are indifferent positions, but likely view this next week as a flashpoint in their seasons.
Entering Thursday night four points behind Chicago for the final playoff spot in the Central Division, the Jackets can’t afford a major setback. The Hurricanes — one point behind Tampa Bay and
Florida — surely see this as an opportunity to take the lead in the division.
There shouldn’t be any shortage of intensity with those stakes, which could only amplify each game.
However, Foligno said the Jackets don’t have the luxury of looking at parts of the schedule that might be more important than others.
“We’re just trying to make sure we’re coming into a real good start to our first one,” he said. “But fully knowing the
type of team they are and have been for a little while here, you have to be at your best in every facet of the game to have a chance to beat these guys. They’re a good, well-coached, hardworking team.”
The last time the Jackets played the Hurricanes, they were outskated and outworked the in a 7-3 loss in Raleigh. Foligno believes the Jackets are a better team now, and there’s some truth to that. They have exited their own zone better in recent games and are creating more in the offensive end, but the Hurricanes will certainly test just how much the Jackets have improved.
“Carolina has definitely developed a reputation of being a great forechecking team and being relentless on pucks and
having good sticks and having good special teams on both sides of the puck,” Jones said. “I think it’s going to be a great challenge for us.”
Bemstrom hurt
The Jackets placed forward Emil Bemstrom on injured reserve Thursday after he suffered a lower-body injury in Wednesday’s practice. Forwards Mikhail Grigorenko, Stefan Matteau and Ryan Macinnis were recalled from the taxi squad.
The team said Bemstrom is expected to miss one week.