from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

Well, we had warned hockey fans that a short, compacted season would be full of surprises and to expect the unexpected.

But whether you would have believed us before the puck dropped this season that a midseason matchup between the Vancouver Canucks and Columbus Blue Jackets would feature a club in disarray, having won only three times in 12 games, against a red-hot squad with five straight wins, well, I think we all know which club you have guessed was which.

That Tuesday night’s encounter in Columbus in fact pits the streaking Jackets hosting the slumping Canucks, well, I guess that just goes to prove a 48-game season is indeed open to almost anything.

So you might as well believe this, too, that if the Jackets beat the Canucks in regulation Tuesday night, they’ll only be two points behind them in the jam-jar standings of the West.

What in the wild, wild, world of sports is going on, you say?

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