Better luck next season: Everything went wrong for the Columbus Blue Jackets

This turned out to be my biggest preseason miss.

Welcome to Better Luck Next Season. As each NHL team gets eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention, and then the Stanley Cup Playoffs, we will take a look at what went wrong, what went right, and what sits ahead for them. The Columbus Blue Jackets were the second team to be eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention on Friday, putting a bow on a season where everything went wrong.

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When the 2022-23 NHL season began I thought there was a lot to like about the Columbus Blue Jackets. Certainly not enough to make them a serious Stanley Cup contender, but maybe enough that they could be a sneaky, under-the-radar Wild Card team in the Eastern Conference.

It turned out to be my biggest miss of the preseason predictions. By a mile. Almost so embarrassing that I should probably not even admit to it. But as Smooth Jimmy Apollo once said, when you are right 52 percent of the time you are wrong 48 percent of the time.

There was some talent on this roster. Some real talent. They were also not completely terrible during the 2021-22 season and managed to hang around in the playoff race, and maybe could have been a bigger factor in it with some better goaltending.

Patrik Laine can be an electrifying goal scorer when he is at his best. They had some talent on defense with Zach Werenski and Adam Boqvist leading the way. Then they went out and added the top free agent on the market by shockingly signing Johnny Gaudreau to a massive seven-year contract on the open market.

They still had a lot of what ifs that needed to go their way, like the goaltending bouncing back and Cole Sillinger taking a big step forward as a top-six center, but it seemed like there was at least something to get excited about here.

Not only did none of that happen, a lot of other things went wrong as well.

What went wrong for the Blue Jackets