Given the team's losing history, optimism sprouts about as often in these parts as a sunflower in the Sahara. But here's a reluctant admission: The Blue Jackets' glass actually looks half-full to me.

Crazy? OK, maybe I have been known to strum my lips on occasion for no discernible reason. But here's my theory, anyway:

The Jackets went into last night's game with Vancouver ranked 30th -- dead last -- in the NHL on the power play, despite having some offensive players who make that number seem unlikely. They went into the game 22nd on the penalty kill, with the same kind of qualifier. In both cases, logic dictates that they should be, if not sensational, better than they have been so far.

And the goaltending situation has been, uh, well, let's call it "unsettled." Rookie Steve Mason has been very good, but it took three Pascal Leclaire ankle injuries and one hand injury and a few rough starts by backup Fredrik Norrena to get to this point.

Yet as bad as all that makes it seem, the standings after the Jackets' 3-2 win over Vancouver say that Columbus is 11-10-3, which is to say, average. Barring a rash of injuries, it's hard not to see the possibility of improvement here. I mean, seriously, when you come into the game 0 for the last 23 (and two for the last 49) on the power play, as the Jackets did, how much worse can it get?

To me, the upside for this team looks much better than the downside, a theory that, not surprisingly, drew emphatic support from Ken Hitchcock.

"(It's) way better, way better," the Jackets coach said. "Of the teams that are greasing around on the sixth, seventh and eighth spot, we're a team that has a chance to get better. We can be better in goal and we can be better on the special teams. Our penalty killing is starting to get its grit level down. And our power play, the term I use is we're taking it to the edge of the ocean. We're not putting it into the ocean. Eventually, we're going to put it into the ocean."

The Jackets actually scored a goal on the power play last night -- they were 1 for 8 -- but they gave up two to Vancouver, which has been having almost as much trouble on the power play as Columbus.

But when Fedor Tyutin was hit with a cross-checking penalty with 1:56 remaining, the Jackets managed to protect the lead, mostly against a Vancouver six-on-four (with the goalie pulled) that Mason called "probably the biggest kill of the year so far."

Mason was spectacular on the kill, stopping four shots, including an amazing one on a Kyle Wellwood wrist shot with 1:43 left. Jason Chimera also blocked one and the Canucks had two more that were wide of the net in a frantic finish that had Mason flipping and flopping all over the place. This was the goaltending and the ending that didn't happen last week in Detroit, one that seemed to say that things might be about to turn.

"That save Mase made was unbelievable, terrific," Hitchcock said. "It's about time we had something like this happen to us. It's happened against us a lot here."

It will happen again at some point; it happens to every team. But if it happens a little less frequently, if the Jackets score even an occasional power-play goal -- hey, let's don't go overboard here -- and Mason's strong goaltending continues, it's not hard to see this team making the kind of move that hasn't been seen in eight seasons.

Is that a sunflower sprouting in the Sahara?

The surprising answer is "yes."

Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch.

bhunter@dispatch.com