\n There’s still a chance. <\/p>\n
\n\tWhere things stand, the Columbus Blue Jackets are in it.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tYou’d take that every season with five games remaining. Tied for the second Eastern Conference wild card spot with an opportunity\u00a0to climb into the Metropolitan Division’s top three.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tBlue Jackets Playoff Chase Tracker<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n\tWhen you zoom out, you know why the despair is deep within the faithful fifth line.\n<\/p>\n \n\tA 1-6-1 slump and six game losing streak, all coming at the most inopportune time. We talked on Friday<\/a> about how the Blue Jackets weren’t done, but their season was circling the drain. Maybe this moment was too big for this team?\n<\/p>\n \n\t“Time will tell on that, right?”\u00a0head coach Rick Bowness said after Saturday’s loss. “Here we are, we’re still in it. We’re still in the fight. Fortunately, the (New York) Islanders lost again. We’ve had plenty of opportunities here to help ourselves, and we haven’t. So, is that not handling it well? Well, we’re going to find out. You look at our last two games.\u00a0We don’t have a goal from a forward.\n<\/p>\n \n\t“I’m certainly going to have to look at me. And take a look at how we’ve got\u00a0these lines constructed. We’re going to\u00a0start with that, and we’re going to figure out ways to get more offense.\n<\/p>\n \n\t“Our top offensive guys … they’re\u00a0going to have to step up, and time will tell \u2014 are they handling it well?”\n<\/p>\n \n\tTwo weeks ago, the Blue Jackets had a 12-game point streak and a four-game winning streak snapped in a 1-0 loss by the Islanders. The Jackets gave up a goal in the first 85 seconds of the game and never found the equalizer.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\tSince beating the Philadelphia Flyers the next time out on Mar. 24, they haven’t won since. And yet somehow this team has a chance to flush away everything that’s happened since and get into the playoffs.\n<\/p>\n \n\tOf course, they’ll need some help. And a lot of that comes from helping yourself, which the Jackets have not done. That can happen on Tuesday when they play a Detroit Red Wings team tied with Columbus in the standings.\n<\/p>\n \n\tAfter the Buffalo Sabres officially clinched a playoff spot over the weekend, breaking a 14-year drought, the pressure is squarely on the\u00a0Red Wings as they aim to end a\u00a0nine-year drought, which is now the longest in the NHL, followed by the Anaheim Ducks (seven years). The Ducks are poised to end that drought this year as they are tied for first in the\u00a0Pacific Division, but they’ve lost five straight with a surging Vegas Golden Knights\u00a0team one point back.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe\u00a0Jackets’ current play on the ice is far from what we’ve seen out of them leading into this slump. On Friday, I mentioned cracks in the foundation were forming during their 12-game point streak when the inability to put games away was resurfacing, a problem that ultimately cost Dean Evason his job as the Blue Jackets were last in the conference and forced to start the climb back into the playoff conversation.\n<\/p>\n \n\tIt’s now simply a gut check time to see if this team has in them what we thought they had when things were straightening out under Bowness in the back half of January and into the Olympic break.\n<\/p>\n \n\tZach Werenski, a possible Norris finalist, was visibly frustrated during Saturday’s postgame media availability. He has one assist in his last six\u00a0games.\u00a0Werenski hasn’t scored a goal since the team’s last win in Philadelphia, when he had his last multi-point game.\u00a0He hasn’t gone longer than three straight games without a point this season.\n<\/p>\n \n\tCharlie Coyle, who has never missed the playoffs in his career and whose name has been brought up in Selke conversation, has one point \u2014\u00a0a goal \u2014\u00a0in his last 10 games. He had a four-point game (one goal, three assists) on Mar. 17 against the Carolina Hurricanes. Since Mar. 12, he has five points (two goals, three assists).\n<\/p>\n \n\tAdam Fantilli, who is sitting at a career-best 55 points, surpassing last year’s total by one, was second on the team with 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in March. He has one goal and four points in his last nine games.\n<\/p>\n \n\tKirill Marchenko has one goal in his last 11 games, but has five points (one goal, four assists) in his last four\u00a0games. Sean Monahan has gone pointless in nine straight. Connor Garland has scored one goal since his consecutive two-goal games to start his Blue Jackets career. He has one assist in his last eight games. Mason Marchment might be the hottest Blue Jacket with a three-game point streak (one goal, four assists). Kent Johnson was a healthy scratch on Saturday.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThings might have finally hit a boiling point after a 24-minute closed-door players meeting following their sixth straight loss. What took so long, right?\n<\/p>\n \n\t\tEveryone is tired, everyone is gassed. This isn’t a problem unique to the #CBJ<\/a>.<\/p>\n But they are off Sunday & Monday and it will be the first time in three weeks and just the second time since the Olympic break ended that the team has had multiple off days.<\/p>\n 4-1-0 could be enough.\n\t<\/p>\n