Game of the Month: 10-0 win lives on in Blue Jackets history

Each month during our 20th anniversary celebration, BlueJackets.com will look back at a memorable moment in franchise history from that month with our Game of the Month feature. The series continues today with the team's 10-0 victory against Montreal four years ago, which remains the most lopsided victory in team history.
As 14,436 fans filed into Nationwide Arena on Nov. 4, 2016, for some Friday night hockey, there was no indication of what was about to happen.
There was no game-night promotion that promised fans would hear the Blue Jackets goal cannon so many times that it would feel like an All-Star Game. There was no pregame prediction that would have said Cam Atkinson, Nick Foligno, Scott Hartnell and Josh Anderson would each score two goals, and certainly no expectation that history would be set in a variety of ways by the time 60 minutes of hockey was played.

Why would there have been? The Blue Jackets were off to a solid start on the season in the first full campaign under John Tortorella, earning a 4-3-1 record through their first eight contests. Montreal, meanwhile, was off to the hottest start in the NHL, as the Habs were the only team in the league without a regulation loss, sporting a 9-0-1 record that saw the team cede just 13 goals in its first 10 games.
Yet what unfolded is one of the most memorable games in Blue Jackets' history. Spurred on by three goals in the first period, five in the second and two more in the third, Columbus posted a 10-0 victory that still serves as both a franchise record for goals in a game as well as the largest margin of victory in team history.
As Columbus fans chanted "We want 10!" before the round-numbered goal went in, there was a jubilation among the fanbase that had not often been seen to that point.

"I've never been a part of anything like that," Foligno said in the locker room postgame. "Not ever. Never."
Soon, though, memorable nights in Nationwide Arena would become commonplace. A team that had made just two playoff appearances in its previous 15 seasons and had missed the postseason in two straight years would use that 10-0 win as a springboard to the best season in franchise history. A 16-game winning streak, just one short of the NHL record, in December and January vaulted the team into Presidents' Trophy contention, and the 50-win campaign still stands as the best in CBJ annals.
While that season ended in disappointment with a five-game loss to rival Pittsburgh in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it started a four-year run of playoff appearances that is matched only by three other teams in the NHL.
Of course, no one knew what the future held when the Blue Jackets took to the ice on that warm November evening in 2016. High school football playoff games also captured the region's attention, and Ohio State football was getting set a night later for a top-10 matchup against Nebraska in Ohio Stadium.
On the ice, it had been a choppy start for Columbus and Tortorella, with the Blue Jackets losing the home opener against Boston and then dropping to 0-2 with a loss to San Jose. A win over Chicago followed before a long road trip that was largely successful, as Columbus earned five points on a four-game jaunt to Dallas, Los Angeles, San Jose and Anaheim.
The Blue Jackets won the finale of the trip by a 4-0 score against the Ducks, then came home and improved to 2-0 on the season vs. the Stars in a 3-2 overtime win Nov. 1 with Seth Jones notching the OT winner.
On the other side of the ice, there was little indication a historic goal-scoring effort was on tap. Montreal had been exceedingly stingy through its first 10 games, and on this night the Habs turned the net over to Al Montoya, a veteran reserve who came into the game with a 1.47 goals-against average and .955 save percentage on the season while sharing time with Carey Price.
And for 10 minutes, there was still no indication of a coming deluge of goals, though Columbus did get off to an early 10-2 edge in shots on goal. Then, at 10:24 of the first, David Desharnais went to the box for tripping, and it took just 32 seconds on the power play for Columbus to take the lead when Foligno made a spinning pass from behind the net to Atkinson low on the left, and his one-timer got by Montoya to set off the cannon for the first time on the night.
The goals came quickly from there, as just 58 seconds later, Josh Anderson won a battle behind the net for a puck and fed Jones, who had snuck down into the right circle for a blast over Montoya's glove that made it 2-0. At 14:06 it became 3-0, as David Savard tracked down a great keep-in by Markus Nutivaara and threw it to the front of the net, where it went off the skate of Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry and into the net.
The Habs settled things down a bit from there and started with some energy in the second, but penalties would be the team's undoing. Alex Emelin took a tripping penalty two minutes into the frame, and Atkinson took advantage with his second goal of the night at 4:01, as Sam Gagner's redirection hit the goal post behind Montoya before Atkinson jumped on the rebound and sent it home to make it a 4-0 game.
A high-sticking double minor by Montreal's Brendan Gallagher at 8:13 allowed a CBJ power play that smelled blood in the water to get back on the ice, and Columbus scored twice with the man advantage to make it 6-0. First, Zach Werenski's perfect diagonal pass found Foligno at the doorstep to make it 5-0 at 10:12, then Hartnell got his first of the night at 11:53 when he flicked a rebound over Montoya's pad.
Foligno's second of the night at 13:39 made it 7-0, as he swept a puck toward the net from in front and it snuck around Montoya and went in. Mercifully, the second period would soon end, but not before Anderson made it 8-0 at 18:32 when his innocent-looking backhander from the top of the circle got past a screened Montoya, who never saw the shot.
As the teams retreated to their locker rooms with a largely academic third period to play, both were pressed into a unique situation. For Montreal, the concern was with Montoya, who had been expected to play the whole game with Price being saved for a game a night later against Philadelphia. Canadiens goalie coach Stephane Waite met with Montoya during intermission, with the veteran saying he was OK to return to the ice for the third despite the shellacking.
"Tonight, we let (Montoya) out to dry," Montreal captain Max Pacioretty would say postgame. "That's what's frustrating. We pride ourselves on being such a close group and to leave our goalie out to dry like that is very frustrating."

On the other side, the Blue Jackets met and agreed that any further goals would not be celebrated, and Hartnell stayed true to that word when he reacted rather casually when he deflected Jones' shot past Montoya at 8:06 to make it a 9-0 game. History was made on the play, though, as Columbus broke its franchise record for goals in a game by reaching nine.
As fans chanted for a 10th goal, the teams were mostly content to finish things off without further incident, but the round number was achieved with 9:15 to go when a loose pick found Anderson all alone and he simply pushed a backhander into the open cage.
By the end, Montreal was left to simply pack up and head home with its first regulation loss of the season an emphatic one.
"There's nothing positive about tonight -- nothing," Montreal coach Michel Therrien said postgame.
On the other side, Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella refused to read too much into what he had just observed.
"I'm just glad we got out of it injury-free," Tortorella said. "It happens. If you're on the losing side of a game like that, it's a tick in the loss column. If you're on the winning side, it's a tick in the win column. That's all it is."
Still, the history of the game lives on, especially among a CBJ fan base that has never seen anything quite like it before or since. Columbus became the first NHL team to score 10 goals in a game in five years, while the Blue Jackets also became the first team to have a shutout and score at least 10 goals since Jan. 2, 1996, when Calgary defeated Tampa Bay by the same 10-0 score.
In total, 16 of 18 CBJ skaters had a point, including multiple-point efforts by eight players: Alexander Wennberg (0-4-4), Anderson (2-1-3), Foligno (2-1-3), Atkinson (2-0-2), Hartnell (2-0-2), Jones (1-1-2), Werenski (0-2-2) and William Karlsson (0-2-2).
The Elias Sports Bureau noted that the Blue Jackets became the first team to have four players each score multiple goals in a game since the Flames on Feb. 10, 1993, against San Jose. The Blue Jackets also went 4-for-5 on the power play to improve their league-leading average to 44.0 percent (11 for 25).
All in all, it was a historic night in Nationwide Arena. What many didn't quite know at the time, though, was that it was also a sign of better days to come.