With the worst league start in 72 years, is the Blue Jackets' season completely lost?

With all the fanfare surrounding the hiring of John Tortorella, one would have thought that a notch in the win column for the Blue Jackets was a given.

Then Columbus lost 3-2 to the Minnesota Wild in Torts’ debut, and the team fell to 0-8-0 on the early season.

Any hockey coach or analyst might say after seven or eight games that the season is still young and that there is “plenty of hockey left.” But it is hard to say that about CBJ, who has the worst start in the league in 72 years.

Their president of hockey ops, John Davidson, reportedly went so far as to call the losing streak “disturbing” while talking to Bob McCown of Prime Time Sports.

With so much hockey left, is there still a chance that Columbus can pull out of the ditch?

For starters, the Blue Jackets are trying to transform their team during a road trip, which could be difficult. That isn't an excuse--roadies can just make adjustments harder on teams.

Also, it's possible that a single game isn’t a good enough indicator as to whether or not Tortorella can turn the team around. As Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports reported, Tortorella didn't completely know the Columbus roster before puck drop at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday.

"I don't know who are,” he said of his players. “I see them, I see their faces, and I don’t know who they are yet.”

He might still be getting to know what kind of a mess he has gotten himself into. Another game should be better indicator.
Even though every aspect of the Blue Jackets' game needs work, the player Tortorella might need to get to knowing the quickest is goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. The stellar netminder has been out of whack in the first eight contests. SportsNet's Emily Sadler reported Davidson's comments regarding Bobrovsky's difficulties between the pipes as of late: 

"Our team has been very porous — there's no question. But he has allowed questionable goals, and that's something that's not in his DNA. It's not in his character. It's strange. It's weird."

Granted, Bobrovsky would still need for the defense in front of him to stop resembling Swiss cheese, but getting his confidense back would certainly help boost Columbus's morale.

The Blue Jackets take the ice on Friday to face the Colorado Avalanche. If they can't pull out the win in that one, there will certainly be more speculation that the season is truly over.