DBJ's 2011-12 Season In Review, Games 71-82

GAMES 71-82   (7-5-0, 29-46-7)

71		72		73
74		75		76
77		78		79
80		81		82

Remember all that stuff I wrote about how the legend of the Blue Jackets playing out the string in grand fashion was largely bunk?  Well....the team closed out the season winning five out of its last six games.  Go figure.  Have we been in bizarro world all season long?

Anyway, the game recaps started to get increasingly scant.  The commentaries became less and less frequent. Candidly, it was rather hard to summon the gusto to write another "Groundhog Day" piece.

Still, I don't think one can overlook what appears to be an incredibly positive addition in Jack Johnson.  Johnson arrived with an upbeat attitude and has never let up.  Due to injuries, he logged insane minutes - sometimes over 30 minutes a game - on the CBJ blue line.  He was a machine, one the Blue Jackets desperately needed as AHLers and waiver pickups slowly infiltrated the roster as the season wore down.

Speaking of injuries, I suggested that the team's season-long rash of injuries resulting in a staggering number of man-games lost warranted a serious look by Blue Jackets management.  I'll stand by that - the injury picture is one that we fans know the least about...but it might be just as important as talent development and acquisition.

The NHL launched a new marketing campaign for the playoffs, "Because It's The Cup."  This, of course, begged for a CBJ version.  Good for a chuckle, something in scant supply during this season.

I don't usually make a point of talking about game play the day after, but that Cam Atkinson shootout goal to end game 72 was a lot more than a kid putting one through after bonus time.  The kid, the skill, the shot...at that point of the season...THAT'S what you should be doing when you play out the string.  At least, that's what I think.

Game 78 presented an interesting question, that of whether the worst team in the Western Conference (and the NHL, for that matter) stood vis a vis the (at the time) best team in the Eastern Conference's Southeast Division.  To answer the question, at least for one night, the worst team in the West was better.  And if I may elaborate, it wasn't really close.  I'm genuinely surprised that the Panthers took their first round playoff series to seven games before succumbing.

The torch passed - perhaps symbolically, perhaps not - between the Captain who doesn't want to play in Columbus any more and the young phenom in game 81.

John Moore won the dreaded CBJ Green Jacket this season.

The season ended (on a pleasant up-note against an even more woeful Islanders team), and the CBJ found a way to get hosed in the draft lottery.  Which is what happens in bizarro world.

Let's move on to the concluding thoughts, what say?