Not football related but hell whenever an Ohio team makes it to the post season we need to talk about it. The Reds are on the struggle bus, the Bengals are headed in the right direction but our brothers to the north the Columbus Blue Jackets are firing on all cylinders. I say brothers but they might as well be kings right now. I am talking John Snow and Longclaw cutting through through white walkers in a race to save the living. Only Longclaw is a CCM hockey stick and John Snow is Artemi Panarin and Cam Atkinson tearing up goalies left and right.
They face their toughest challenge yet though in the first round taking on the Presidents Cup (Team with the most points in the regular season) winners the Tampa Bay Lightning. We are pretty big Jackets fans here at 4TH & CINCY so hearing we face the Lightning round one is a little unnerving. Nikita Kucherov is a player for Tampa Bay who is having a hell of a season. He is the Ivan Drago to our Rocky to put it into perspective. The guy has 41 goals and 87 assists for the regular season and doesn't give a shit who Columbus is on his way to the Stanley Cup.
We have our own version though in Cam Atkinson who is a goal scoring machine. He currently sits at 41 goals with 28 assists. The guy is a hat trick dynamo. Between him and Artemi who has 87 assists himself we have a solid shot at a playoff run. To add to that our goal tending has been spectacular as of late. Sergai Bobvrosky has 1,700 saves and nine shutout wins this season. 4-5 of them very recent. In addition we have excellent defenders in Seth Johns and Zach Werenski.
Columbus has never won a playoff series. Game one of the First Round series between Tampa Bay and Columbus will take place Wednesday at AMALIE Arena. Game two is Friday in Tampa. Games three and four will be held Sunday and Tuesday, respectively, at Columbus' Nationwide Arena. All starting times are scheduled for 7 p.m. Eastern. This will be a fun one to follow. Maybe the Kings in the North can break the Ohio playoff curse this year and defeat the Lightning. We shall wait and see.
WHODEY.... and CBJ!
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