Despite the past two losses, the Blue Jackets are on pace for 58 wins and 125 points. That would be not only the best season in their history, but one of the best in NHL history. The NHL records are 62 wins and 132 points, held by the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, respectively.
Needless to say, that's going to be hard to sustain. As well as the Blue Jackets have played, with balanced scoring, great goaltending from Bobrovsky and the League's No. 1 power play (27.2 percent), they have been healthy and gotten some bounces. Well, Bobrovsky can't play every game and sometimes the puck rolls off your stick at the worst time.
The Blue Jackets play 12 of their next 22 games within the Metropolitan Division, the best division in the League this season. The Blue Jackets started 5-0-0 in the division, but after a 5-0 loss to the Washington Capitals on Thursday and the loss to the Rangers on Saturday, they're now 5-2-0, just like that. It's going to get tougher in what Tortorella called the "dog days" of the season and "a very important six or seven weeks that really defines your club."
"That's where you really find out about your team," Tortorella said Saturday morning. "I still can't define us. I have confidence in our team. I certainly trust our team more as I've got to know them more than last year. So I'm looking for good things. But where it goes to, you just never know."
Realistically, the Blue Jackets should regress, at least somewhat. But even if they do, they still have a huge opportunity to have the best season in their history, to start the first period of sustained success in their history, to turn Columbus into a hockey town like never before.