Blue Jackets in midst of best stretch in history

Rick Nash's return to health was the key ingredient to the turnaround.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Things couldn't have gotten much worse for the Columbus Blue Jackets as they broke for the Christmas holiday.
Stuck in a six-game losing skid, they had a record of 9-25-1, had scored a league-worst 72 goals and were on pace to become the weakest offensive team in NHL history.
"There were a lot of nights I went home and I said to myself, 'Where did I go wrong here?' " general manager Doug MacLean said Wednesday.
Whether it was a holiday miracle or a team finally hitting its stride, over the 50 games since Christmas the Blue Jackets have played the best hockey of their five years of existence (23-15-2).
Heading into back-to-back games with the Detroit Red Wings Friday and Saturday, they have won a franchise-best six games in a row.
"At Christmas time we talked and said we just wanted to get respectability for the franchise," forward Trevor Letowski said. "We wanted to be a team that's thought of with respect, one that's tough to come in and play against. That's what we're starting to establish."
Reversal of fortune
The reasons are many.
First, the Blue Jackets regained top scorer Rick Nash, who was unavailable for most of those first 35 games because of a couple troublesome leg injuries. He's rounded into shape just as the team caught fire and has 46 points in his 47 games.
Second, the club has several players who are putting up career numbers.
"Everybody's contributing," forward Manny Malhotra said. "It's not a matter of one guy going off every night and filling the net and our goalies making 60 stops."
Columbus has gotten big years from David Vyborny (18 goals, 37 assists), Nikolai Zherdev (27 goals, 27 assists), veteran leaders Adam Foote and Sergei Fedorov and from the goaltending tandem of Marc Denis and Pascal Leclaire.
Executing their roles
"The guys who are supposed to be scoring are scoring goals, and the guys who are supposed to be stopping the other team from scoring them are doing it," said Jason Chimera, who has 17 goals since MacLean picked him up in an October trade with Phoenix.
The Blue Jackets set the franchise record with an impressive 3-1 victory at Nashville Monday night. The turnaround is getting opponents' attention.
"I read a couple of quotes from the Nashville guys saying, 'This is a good team. They're playing hard. They're playing as a unit. They're playing within their system,' " forward Trevor Letowski said. "Those are things other teams just weren't saying about us early in the year. That means a lot for the franchise."
Blue line rock
Foote, a mainstay on Colorado's two Stanley Cup champions, has been a rock on the blue line.
Fedorov's numbers (8 goals, 28 assists) don't reflect his contributions. He's steadied the top line while helping to develop fellow Russian Zherdev, who has blossomed into one of the game's best young players.
The streak is nothing more than a milepost, said Denis, who points out that great teams don't pat themselves on the back for winning a few in a row.
"It's a lot more fun coming to practice," Denis said. "But at the same time, this is what we're going to have to do on a more consistent basis next year to get to where we want to be."
Coach Gerard Gallant, whose job was in jeopardy early in the season, said the Blue Jackets have turned a corner.
"You look around the room and the guys are confident," he said. "They've always known they had a good team. It was just that early in the season with all the injuries things didn't go well and we got behind the eight ball.
"Now, when they're working hard and playing the game they're capable of playing, we can beat anybody in the league. Before we used to say that -- but now we really believe it."