Young Blue Jackets feel as if future is bright

After a season of firsts, Columbus Blue Jackets hoping to build on close series with Penguins

4/30/2014
ASSOCIATED PRESS
  • Penguins-Blue-Jackets-Hockey-24

    Columbus Blue Jackets' David Savard, top, knocks Pittsburgh Penguins' Brandon Sutter to the ice during the first period of Game 6 of a first-round NHL playoff hockey series Monday, April 28, 2014, in Columbus, Ohio.

    ASSOCIATED PRESS

    • Columbus Blue Jackets' David Savard, top, knocks Pittsburgh Penguins' Brandon Sutter to the ice during the first period of Game 6 of a first-round NHL playoff hockey series Monday, April 28, 2014, in Columbus, Ohio.
    Columbus Blue Jackets' David Savard, top, knocks Pittsburgh Penguins' Brandon Sutter to the ice during the first period of Game 6 of a first-round NHL playoff hockey series Monday, April 28, 2014, in Columbus, Ohio.

    COLUMBUS — For most NHL teams, getting knocked out in the first round of the playoffs is hardly a watershed moment.

    The Columbus Blue Jackets — a doormat for so long — feel as if it’s a turning point, a tentative step to transforming the once sorry club.

    In a season of firsts — most wins, most goals, first postseason wins — the Blue Jackets are left to deal with their last game, a crazy comeback from a 4-0 deficit falling just short in Game 6 against the favored Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night.

    Now one of the youngest teams in the league has established an identity as a hard-working bunch with blossoming talent.

    The Blue Jackets, their playoff beards shaved, believe the future is bright.