Columbus Blue Jackets fans are brimming with optimism entering the 2011-12 season. The Jackets made one of the offseason\u2019s biggest splashes, acquiring Jeff Carter from the Flyers. They also signed defenseman James Wisniewski to a big deal. <\/p>\n
The expectation is for Columbus to become a Western Conference playoff contender. But did the Jackets\u2019 offseason additions improve them by 16 points? That\u2019s how far they were from a playoff berth last season.<\/p>\n
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS<\/strong> To assess Columbus\u2019 chances this year, we may as well cut to the chase. How much will Carter help the team and will he make Rick Nash better? For starters, sure, Carter will boost Columbus\u2019 scoring. He\u2019s only the second true goal scorer the Jackets have ever had and will virtually guarantee the team two 30-goal scorers.<\/p>\n But everyone has to calm down about the Carter\/Nash connection making beautiful magic. Carter is a center but he\u2019s not a playmaker at all. He\u2019s a sniper, a shooter who just happens to play center. He may indirectly make Nash better by drawing attention away from him but he won\u2019t make Nash better by feeding him the puck. I\u2019m not even convinced these two will stick on the same line. It makes way more sense to split them up and ice two different lines with deadly snipers.<\/p>\n Wisniewski isn\u2019t worth the $5.5 million per season Columbus will pay him but he\u2019s a useful addition, capable of playing big minutes with an edge to his game. He can also help the power play. Adding Carter and Wisniewski to the first power-play unit will make the Jackets much more dangerous with the man advantage. [ad-4437448]<\/p>\n But are those two enough to propel Columbus into the playoffs? I\u2019m quite skeptical. The rest of the Jackets\u2019 forwards are useful, two way players, including R.J. Umberger, and Antoine Vermette. But, unless Derick takes his game to new heights and Ryan Johansen proves to be NHL-ready, Columbus\u2019 offense is high on hustle but short on true skill.<\/p>\n The Blue Jackets\u2019 blueline also looks shaky. Wisniewski and Fedor Tyutin are ideal No. 4 types but they\u2019ll be depended on as the No. 1 and No. 2. The rest of the group includes ho-hum players like Radek Martinek and Kris Russell.\u00a0 The defense corps skates reasonably well but, skill wise, it could be the NHL\u2019s weakest.<\/p>\n And what about goaltending? Steve Mason has been awful since his stellar rookie season and has given us little reason to hope for a turnaround. With a talent-poor defense corps and one of the league\u2019s worst starting goaltenders, it sure seems like Columbus will get scored on a ton.<\/p>\n Sorry, Jackets fans. Your team looks quite bad in goal and on defense and it has to play Detroit and Chicago a dozen times. Even if Columbus makes incremental offensive gains, it won\u2019t be enough to push the team into the playoffs.<\/p>\n I\u2019d expect, at most, a marginal improvement over last year\u2019s 81-point effort. But I don\u2019t see Columbus playing playoff hockey this season.<\/p>\n Prediction: <\/strong>5th<\/sup>, Central Division<\/p>\n CappersPicks.com\u00a0NHL Betting<\/strong><\/a> and gambling site provides the BEST Online\u00a0hockey predictions<\/strong><\/a> for you to bet on for the 2011\/12 NHL hockey season! Stick with us all season long!<\/p>\n Shea Matthews weighs in with his 2011-2012 Columbus Blue Jackets Season Gambling Picks and NHL Preview, plus he provides the lastest NHL odds, Blue Jackets future lines, and Stanley Cup predictions\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":27059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[52592,52593,52104,52105,35373,35374,35012,17638,17823,1968],"class_list":["post-44261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl","tag-2011-blue-jackets-predictions","tag-2011-blue-jackets-season-preview","tag-2011-2012-nhl-predictions","tag-201112-nhl-preview","tag-blue-jackets-nhl-schedule","tag-blue-jackets-odds","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-nhl-hockey-predictions","tag-nhl-season-preview","tag-stanley-cup-odds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44261"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47206,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44261\/revisions\/47206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nStanley Cup odds: +5000<\/p>\nCLICK HERE TO OPEN AN ACCOUNT AT BETONLINE.COM AND BET ON HOCKEY AT THE BEST SPORTSBOOK ONLINE!!!!!<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"