from Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch,

The Blue Jackets, with 70 points, are in 28th place in the league. Toronto and Edmonton both have 67 points.

It is time to think upside-down and finish the race to the bottom. To that end, tonight’s game against the Maple Leafs in Toronto might be the Blue Jackets’ biggest regular-season game since April 27, 2013, when they faced a must-win game against the Predators on the last day of the season. (The Jackets did, in fact, win — but they needed help to make the playoffs. They lost on a tiebreaker.)

The coaches and players like to think there is meaning in finishing strong. Nobody likes to see coach John Tortorella when he is miserable, when only rescue dogs can salve his soul. Yet, the best thing that can happen for the Blue Jackets is to make the last three games of the regular season into a Monty Python sketch. Suggestion: “How not to be seen.”

A loss tonight would be huge. Maple Leafs fans know it. They will pack Air Canada Center and most of them will root, heartily, for the Blue Jackets. When it comes to draft-lottery percentages, thinking upside-down is thinking right-side-up. Whoever wins the race to the bottom will have the best chance (20 percent) to win the lottery. Auston Matthews, a bona fide No. 1 center, is the prize. If he is not a savior, he is at least the best thing that could ever happen to the Jackets.

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