It’s almost here, the light at the end of this horrible tunnel. Just three games and twenty-five days left until we find out if this dreadful season for the Red Wings was all worth it.

Disappointingly, the Red Wings are hot coming into Nationwide Arena with a three-game winning streak, defeating the Penguins, Sabres and Senators all in regulation. The Blue Jackets have stumbled recently, needing overtime to beat the Vancouver Canucks, but just four games prior they were riding high on a ten-game winning streak. Which looks like it game them the right bump in the standings to cement their spot in the playoffs.

With a win against the Red Wings and the Nashville Predators defeating the Florida Panthers in any fashion, the Columbus Blue Jackets are in the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in history. This team has suffered enough and they are so damn likeable.

We’ll be like them in a dozen or so years.

I think I’m going insane still seeing Evgeny Svechnikov on the fourth-line. This man has the skill and scoring prowess to be in the top-6 for these remaining games. He will make mistakes with more minutes, but he’s a rookie and it’s okay. Growing pains are a thing in the NHL and it should be accepted as a young player learning so he can get better and develop his game.

It’s a telling sign of how your defenseman perform, when young Joe Hicketts comes in for four games and is instantly the most exciting player to watch. Something has to give with this blueline for next season or the LCA is going to stay empty.

The Columbus Blue Jackets used to be a complete joke of a team – management to their roster. Emerging like a phoenix out of the hot pile of garbage that some GMs left that team, comes a young team that was developed well and will always be a lock for a playoff spot.

The forward group is powered by depth – Artemi Panarain and Pierre-Luc Dubois are your leaders, but players like Sonny Milano and Oliver Bjorkstrand provide offensive power that can continue throughout the game for the Blue Jackets.

Any blueline that has Zach Werenski and Seth Jones on it is given a shot to win some hockey games. Those two young defenseman are mobile, strong and a perfect mold of what a modern NHL defenseman should aspire to be. Dominant.

Jimmy Howard vs. Sergei Bobrovsky

Jimmy is in tough against (in my opinion) the best goaltender in the league.

According to Dana Wakiji, Coreau was supposed to start but fell ill and Howard will start for this evening.

It would have been nice to pretty much guarantee a loss, but now we’ll have to wait and see how Howard will perform. No matter what, the Blue Jackets actually need to win to clinch a playoff spot tonight so expect Howard to be facing a lot of shots.

Bobrovsky is just so damn good. Coming off of a Vezina-winning season, Sergei has responded with continuing this prowess in net.

He has so far, faced the most shots in his whole NHL career but with a .923 sv% he is just killing team’s chances of winning when he is in between the pipes. With a .603 quality start percentage as well, he is giving the Blue Jackets a chance to win – and they are doing just that.

Puck drop is at 7:00pm EST on Fox Sports Detroit, or Fox Sports Ohio if you want to cheer for the Blue Jackets and listen to other people that cheer for the Blue Jackets.

Make sure you’re following us on Twitter and join in on the conversation during the game. We’ll have gifs, chirps, and general sadness on the state of this team.