BY NIC MORK

Last April, Columbus was enthused with the Blue Jackets playoff run. The Jackets had the best regular season in history of the team and also had two playoff wins, the first in the history of the Jackets. The addition of veteran Scott Hartnell and not losing any big pieces of the team last year meant the Jackets were probably going to get even better. All of this had Jackets fans looking for the future for this upcoming season.

The biggest story of the summer, though, was the young and upcoming center Ryan Johansen who was a training camp lock out and was not signed until the week before the first game. When the Blue Jackets were able to bring him in for a two-year deal, the team was poised for the new season.

Fast forward one month into the season, and the Jackets have gone on a nine game losing streak. The Blue Jackets have had horrible starts in many different seasons and still have been able to have successful seasons. For example, the Jackets came off a 5-10 start and still made the playoffs. In this situation, however, this team shows little hope at getting any better any time soon.

As I hate to say it the Blue Jackets have no hope for this season, although I would love them to prove me wrong.   The Blue Jackets have many injuries to key players: seven players from last year’s playoff team are out including Brandon Dubinsky, young defenseman Ryan Murray and Nathan Horton, whom the Jackets just signed to a seven-year deal and will probably never play hockey again.

The Blue Jackets are a team on the rise but many injuries to start the season will most likely prevent them from making the playoffs.