ColumbusSports.com : Your place to stay informed and talk about the sports scene and sports teams in and around Columbus.

Those of you who have read my columns regularly in an know that I have probably asked this more than once over last few months: “Is this the time?”

“Is this the turning point?”

“Is this the win the Columbus Blue Jackets need to turn it all around and get back on track?”

I mean, come on, we all know the answer is still the same: We don't know…

… but maybe it is.

Having had the good fortune of being in attendance for the February 4 game against Dallas -- the Jacket's first under interim head coach Claude Noel -- in I witnessed what I can only call the best Blue Jackets game I had seen this year. Sure, the win against Nashville a couple weeks back was pretty sweet, but it was also peppered with inconsistent play and a couple of long stretches without a shot on goal.

However, it seemed very clear that the Blue Jackets were a different team against Dallas. Despite giving up a late goal to Dallas to spoil the shutout, we saw an amazing effort out of the home team, punctuated by that crazy empty-net goal scored by R.J. Umberger as he was sliding on his stomach. It was the craziest stomach goal I have seen since Stephane Yelle did it in the 1998-99 season. I wish there had been YouTube back then, because it was a crazy-good goal.

Now, one would wonder if the Jackets could keep it up, having been plagued with inconsistency for so long, especially going up against one of the Eastern Conference's best teams, the Buffalo Sabres. Then came the 4-0 win, beginning with the freakish goal by Milan Jurcina in what started as a dump-in off the glass, continued with a Rick Nash power-play goal, and capped by two goals in the first 2:09 of the third period.

But surely the doubts would kick in when the Blue Jackets faced the San Jose Sharks -- again, a top team, this time in the Western Conference, a team seemingly built at to take the play us by storm and win the Cup (never mind that they won the Presidents Trophy and were unceremoniously bounced in the first round last year).

The Jackets are on a roll, in which they've outscored their opponents 9-1 in the last three games.

Instead, Steve Mason got his second straight shutout, and has the Jackets on a roll, in which they've outscored their opponents 9-1 in the last three games.

Now, and I wasn't wild about Ken Hitchcock's firing, and I've made no secret about it. I’ll tell you what, though… a three-game win streak under the new guy gets you over that kind of stuff really quickly. Who the hell is this Claude Noel guy, and what has he done with our hockey team?

Whatever he has done that has loosened his team up, I'm all for it.

If the Blue Jackets manage three or four points in the standings in these next two games, GM Scott Howson will have two weeks of some hard thinking to do.

Now, the big question is if the Jackets can keep it up for two more games, against two more division leaders -- tonight against Vancouver and Sunday against Chicago. The Olympics roster freeze passed today, without the Jackets making any moves. Once the season resumes after the Olympic Break, it will be time for the NHL Trade Deadline. If the Blue Jackets stay on this tear and manage three or four points in the standings in these next two games, GM Scott Howson will have two weeks of some hard thinking to do.

The Blue Jackets return from the Olympic Break on March 2, with another game against the Vancouver Canucks. The NHL Trade Deadline is the next day. Depending how these last three games go before the deadline, Columbus could be sellers at the deadline (which many people no doubt expected, before the Jackets rattled off three straight wins), or they could stand pat.

Or... could they be buyers?

The Columbus Blue Jackets currently sit eight points out of the eighth seed in the West. They have 21 games to get to… let’s say 93 points. That's one more point than the 92 Columbus had to get the seventh seed last year. It may not even take that many, but I think that's a good mark to set. So, that means 34 points in the next 21 games. It sounds crazy, but can it be done? Sure.

The next two games and the first one after the Olympic Break will be very telling. If the Blue Jackets keep riding this streak, then March 3 could be a very interesting day, indeed. Fold, check, or raise?

We’ll see how the next couple hands play out.

Tags: buffalo sabres, columbus blue jackets, dallas stars, nhl trade deadline, olympic break, san jose sharks