The Blue Jackets came into this season looking for consecutive playoff appearances for the first time in franchise history -- but after a horrible start, they’ve already been forced into playing the numbers game.
“You need 96 points,” defenseman James Wisniewski said, per the Dispatch. “We have nine. So we need 87 points. Forty-three-and-a-half wins.”
An almost unbelievable rash of injuries has left the Jackets undermanned this year, reflected in their 4-10-1 record. Columbus is dead last in the Metropolitan Division and has the second-fewest points in the NHL, just one up on the lowly Sabres.
As Wisniewski’s math suggests, the team has a tall task ahead with only 67 games left to get its requisite wins.
If you want a better sense of how much this is eating away at the players, watch the entirety of Wisniewski’s interview, during which he says all the losing can “start affecting your personal life.”
Columbus has lost nine straight and will try to right the ship tomorrow night in Philadelphia.
“We have to come out and understand that we’ve already dug ourselves a hole,” Wisniewski explained. “We can’t keep digging deeper, because we don’t want to be playing for nothing come January, February, March.”