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Blue Jackets Need To Improve Play If They Want Streak To Last |
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Follow me on Twitter @ToddCordell
The Columbus Blue Jackets are enjoying this holiday season as much as anyone after starting the month 8-0-1 and crawling within five points of a playoff spot, but their play needs to improve dramatically if they want to continue this success.
Being five points out with the Rangers having played two less games means they're probably seven points out in reality, which leaves them a lot of work to do over the 2nd half of the season.
The Jackets are winning a lot of games right now, but that won't last if they don't start playing much better.
Right now they're riding unsustainably high save percentages from Sergei Bobrovsky and relying on him to make almost 40 saves a night while trying to win games being significantly outshot, and that's not a winning recipe over time.
Note: numbers from nine-game point streak.
As you can see, the Jackets are getting just 41% of all shot attempts, and are being out-attempted by over 16 shots per 60 minutes played at even-strength. Their shooting percentage isn't anything out of the norm, but their save percentage in December is 1st in the NHL because Bobrovsky, while very, very good, is playing at a level that's too high even for him.
He can't make 40 saves per game, which means one of two things 1) his numbers will drop dramatically and Columbus will fall out of the race if this continues or; 2) Columbus will tighten up on the defensive side of the puck in which case they should be OK.
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out because, again, if they keep on the path they're on they won't be winning games at a rate close to what they are right now.
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