This headline format was, admittedly, a bit of a jinx when I used it last season. The Stars, Wild, Flyers and Canucks all lost their games. And then Halford goes and tries it once and the Lightning win!
It was infuriating.
So I’m here to try again in 2014-15. And I have to say, I really like my chances tonight in Raleigh.
Sure, the Jackets have lost six straight in regulation. Sure, they’ve still got a ton of injuries to key players. Sure, Jack Johnson is currently serving a three-game suspension. And sure, they’re playing a Carolina team that’s turned on a dime and won three in a row, including Tuesday’s dominance of the Jackets in Columbus. “Yeah, we’re rolling,” said Cam Ward.
Sorry, where was I? Oh right, why I think the Jackets will win tonight.
Well, um, James Wisniewski will be back.
But more than that, they just really, really can’t afford to keep losing. Columbus is already six points back of the third-place Rangers in the Metropolitan Division. And with eight regulation losses total, the Jackets (4-8-0) have already lost a quarter of the games they lost in regulation all of last season.
“I hate losing,” Nick Foligno told the Columbus Dispatch. “There are a lot of guys in here that feel the same way.”
See? Foligno is mad.
They’re totally gonna win.