Now that we're here.. so far away.

That was a song by Staind I heard this morning that kind of summed up the first two games of this series perfectly for me.

Nothing went right for the Jackets last night. They did everything they couldn't do if they hoped to win.

They couldn't stay out of the box.

They couldn't get to Osgood early or often.

Nash and Mase were bottled up.

Right now the Jackets seem to be out of their league and in over their heads. These playoffs have been a wakeup call of ginormous proportions.

I would do a stoplight game review but what's the point? There will be so much red in this post that I'll feel like a Wings fan... we can't have that.

I do want to point out a few things however:

* Without Mase these scores could be a lot worse than they are.. ..

* When your best forward has been a rookie in Jakub Voracek you know your in trouble... along with Klesla he has been one few silver linings in this tournament... this kid is gonna be the real deal folks and as painful as it is to watch, this is a valuable learning experience for him.

* The Wings are covering Nash with a blanket and nobody is stepping up behind him.

* I've seen Casper the ghost more than I've seen Juice through two games. If Mikael Samuelson can hit and compete then Huselius has absolutely no excuses to do his best impersonation of David Copperfield and disappear.

* Peca, Modin, Chimera, Williams have done squat... and they are supposed to be our experienced playoff performers yet our best performers outside of Umberger have been those without any experience at all.

* Hitch looked like a guy who has comes to terms with the reality of the situation.

* Derek Dorsett was terrific... he may not score often but at least you know the guy is out there and working.

* Remember game 1 when the Wings broke in on a two on one and their secondary scoring converted? Fast forward to last night when the game was still close and Chimera was fed a beautiful pass only two fire it wide... those plays in a nutshell are what separate your contenders from the pretenders... the Wings make you pay, the Jackets shoot wide.

* 9 penalties to 4? Some ridiculous tic tacky calls but you know what, it wouldn't have mattered anyways as the better team won last night.

* Hitch and Babcock said the Jackets looked better at even strength... quite frankly I didn't see it.

* The Wings skill guys compete just as hard as anyone on the ice... they all hit, they all work, they all sacrifice.... no matter the names on the back or the millions in their accounts. If there is one thing I want the Jackets to learn from this series that is it.

* From the sounds of it the Wings fans were as classy last night as they were on Thursday... I even hear their security was talking trash... of course they'll come to Columbus and our security will treat them with kid gloves.. then again, that is what class get's you.

* Voracek, Filatov and Brassard need to mature real quick. We desperately need the skill they bring to the lineup.. especially on the PP.

* Datsyuk and Zetterberg get away with anything they want on the ice.. they slash, poke and prod all game long.... it was clear to everyone but the refs that Dastyuk didn't have his fight strap buckeled down after Vermette took him down which should be an automatic penalty yet nada.. our skill guys need to adopt that edge and start pushing the limits.

* As much as I'd personally be tempted to play Filatov I don't expect the Jackets too... the guy we could really use is Brassard.

* The loss marks the 4th straight regulation loss for the Jackets... which is the most since the season began.

* Montreal, St. Louis, Calgary, Philly and Columbus are all down 2-0 in their series.. they are all the away teams. Only Anaheim, New York and Carolina have won on the road.

It's not so much the losses as it is how they are losing. I expected losses (heck I expected to lose this series) but these games haven't even close. That is the most disappointing thing for me.

It's like the title of this blog says... we are in the playoffs which is awesome but there is obviously still a ways to go before we become a real threat in the playoffs. It's hard to accept now but we are taking some painful but necessary steps to get there.

Here's the way I see it now Jackets fans... let's be honest in that we'll probably lose this series.. but you know what -- if we are goin down then I'm going down in flames right with them.

I want to see the Jackets team give everything they've got in front of their home crowd... leave it all on the ice!!

Not sure about you out there but I'm still taking off Tuesday and I'm gonna bring everything I've got as fan down to Nationwide to support these guys on our ice! I encourage anyone out there who reads this blog to do the same!

I want to see signs, blue hair, flags, face paint, blue finger nail polish, civil war paraphernalia, blue beards, hockey masks... you name it! Let's go all out.

One more thing.... everybody wear BLUE! I know there are a lot of OSU fans out there.. heck I've got my share of gear as well... but it does nobody any good to wear anything with red in it for this game.....unless your a turncoat. Let's turn the nat into a sea of blue!

GO JACKETS!

-LTL