The Blue Jackets are on the bubble apparently. The question is of course, will they burst or continue their steady rise and burst out of their enduring history? It is an odd phrase, being on the bubble. A bubble, by nature always explodes, vanishes and bursts, so by that definition the Blue Jackets are destined to fail. Failure has been something of a buzzword for the Jackets in their relatively short history, but now they are standing at a meridian between two poles, not on a bubble. A bubble drifts, is blown around by external forces. The Blue Jackets appear to be past that now, they are actually controlling their own destiny.

The Columbus Blue Jackets were recently, not unfamiliarly outside of higher echelons of NHL Power Rankings, but a lot of their season was summed up in the closing minutes of a recent midweek game in LA. The Kings were 8-0-0 at home at the start of Wednesday night, with their PK unit boasting a 34-34 record. This was the first stop on a Blue Jackets road trip, a three-match/four-night stint on the Pacific Coast. With the score tied at 3-3 and just around three minutes left on the clock, up steps NHL All-Star Rick Nash to score the game winner. It wasn’t just any old game winner either, it was a highlight reel effort. It came off a tape-to-tape pass from young centre Derrick Brassard, which Nash brought into centre ice to then bury the puck past Kings’ goaltender Jonathan Quick, by leaning one way and shooting the other. Kings defenseman Davis Drewiskie was left flat footed and out of the game with the speed of the transition, Nash leaving him a spectator. The Blue Jackets waltzed out with a 5-3 victory, and just that one moment of brilliance from Nash turned the game. It came after nothing more than a hard working effort by the visitors, a foundation upon which to build success.

Hard working and disciplined. That is what, by and large the Blue Jackets have become, ever since ditching Ken Hitchcock last season. A collective which is beginning to hold its own in difficult circumstances, and is accentuated, embellished with the world class skill that Canada’s Rick Nash brings to the top line. There was even more to come from Nash on the road trip. After seeing off Anaheim in their own back yard on Friday night, Columbus then faced Dany Heatley and Joe Thornton in San Jose. A shut-out by goaltender Mathieu Garon there, was surpassed only by a Rick Nash hat trick in a 3-0 Columbus win. The first time that Columbus had won in regulation at San Jose. For all the plaudits deserved for his fifth career hat trick (on a night where he wasn’t even going to play because of injury) it was really Rick Nash’s game winner against LA which surpasses even that. That was the pivotal, heroic goal. A loss there on that first night on the Pacific Coast, and it would have been an even more enduring road trip. But Nash’s brilliance fulfilled his captain’s role. He pulled the team through and from that, they made a clean sweep of three games in four days.

In the ten year history of the franchise, the Blue Jackets have only once flirted with the play-offs, in 2009, which ended in a 4-0 first round series whitewash by division rivals the Detroit Red Wings. No shame there, but the gulf in class at that point was evident. The pretenders had shown up to the party and the Red Wings were having none of it. It all crumbled back to a disappointing reality after that, and Hitchcock was ousted, and thankfully, for many Blue Jackets fans, so too was the labouring style of hockey that was holding the team back. After interim coach Claude Noel had stepped into the breach, Scott Arniel was then installed as Head Coach for the new season, and changes have been evident. Not in the players, but in the way they do their jobs. After shaking off the defensive mindset instilled by Hitchcock the Blue Jackets have a much more concerted feel about their attacking ideas and you can see that the shackles are off, yet ironically they struggled for so long this season to score more than two goals in a match. The pitfalls of a new coach and players having to learn a new system perhaps? There certainly is a learning curve for the players, and time needed to put the training drills into practice. Time needed to get out of old habits and enjoy new ones. The Blue Jackets are dressing pretty much the same bunch of guys as they had last year, and it is a good crop of youngsters, reinforced by some valuable core players. The difference is, Arniel seems to know how to get the best out of them. It took time, but the Blue Jackets then broke out of their limited scoring by trouncing a hot St Louis Blues by an 8-1 scoreline.

Steady progress. Rick Nash is the face of the franchise, a star of the game, and that will not change any time soon. This is because the Blue Jackets don’t have enough players yet threatening to usurp the positions of the likes of Steven Stamkos, Sidney Crosby, Martin St Louis and the Washington duo of Alexander Semin and Alex Ovechkin at the top of the overall individual stats. It’s not that Nash isn’t worthy of being up there of course, he is a proven talent, a proven goalscorer, but this season, it looks to be more about a team effort. Nash is there to accentuate, to drag the rest of the attack up by their heels, to inspire, to lead. Columbus though, have yet to collectively prove that they have the offensive power to punch their way to the top just yet (having just four players in double points figures). This is why they are on the bubble, as along with the highs, there have been lows. Pitfalls. When they have lost, they have gone down heavily, such as in the 5-1 crushing by Colorado straight after the St Louis triumph. But surely there is cause for a lot more optimism around the Nationwide Arena now, as the team head back home. Columbus are sitting healthy in the Western Conference, and at least being competitive on a more regular basis. There are consistency issues still, but perhaps that is because of the young nature of the team, and again part of the transitional status and period which they are in.

For example, for too long now, Columbus have been looking for a number one centre, part of the reason why Derrick Brassard was drafted into the club. Finally, after showing such early promise only to be hampered by injury and then slow form to the start of the new season, Brassard is finally on a hot streak, centring Nash and fellow youngster Jakub Voracek on the top line. Chemistry is often the make or break mystique, the x-factor which makes teams get over the thin line between success and failure. For the Blue Jackets, the top line chemistry is brewing nicely, showing a lot more potential and promise to come. While the top line is looking to steady the ship offensively, most of the secondary scoring has come from the bottom two lines, with the second line, usually the trio of Nikita Filatov, RJ Umberger and Antoine Vermette still looking for that clinical, offensive chemistry. Perhaps three out of four ain’t bad at the moment. There is room to grow, highlighted by young Russian Filatov and goaltender Steve Mason, but perhaps most importantly, there has been a clear step forward in progress this season. Instead of stumbling along, hoping for results, the Blue Jackets are now more expecting of them.

In summary. The only team in the entire NHL to not lose back to back games this season are the Blue Jackets. Experienced defensive hand Rusty Klesla is one of the leading players in the NHL for +/-. Backup goalie Mathieu Garon has three shut outs. The Blue Jackets are actually in the plus for goal difference. Somehow the Columbus Blue Jackets have become more defensively sound by being less defensive, for breaking out from beyond the blue line with conviction. More importantly, after their burst of road wins, the Blue Jackets may now be commanding respect from their peers. They are back home now, ready to face one of their own rivals, the Nashville Predators on Monday as they continue to look upwards from their meridian.