At Least If The Blue Jackets Miss The Playoffs It Won't Be Because Of This Goal

Columbus has an awful lot riding on making the playoffs, and the race for the East’s two wild card spots is so tight that every single goal has the potential to decide seasons. So if the Blue Jackets and their fans were dreading the possibility of an offseason spent bemoaning this fluke Boston goal to open the scoring Tuesday night, at least that specific fear dissipated pretty quickly. CBJ rendered the goal basically meaningless by going on to get their shit stomped in by the Bruins. Is that any better?

The Blue Jackets started the day in the first wild card spot and with a chance to clinch a playoff berth. They ended it having crapped the bed in their last home game of the year, a 6-2 loss to the Bruins, and in a virtual tie for the last playoff spot and the opportunity to get boat-raced by the Lightning. In between, Jake DeBrusk scored a normal, old-fashioned goal that deflected up in the air and trickled down Sergei Bobrovsky.

Columbus’s loss and wins by Montreal and Carolina mean we’ve got ourselves a bit of a mess here to be worked out in the season’s final two games.

The Blue Jackets own the tiebreaker with the most regulation and overtime wins, so the Habs are the only team that needs help to get in. Still, avoiding Tampa seems like a worthy goal for everyone.