For Columbus, it was history made; in Montreal, it was perhaps rock bottom. With rumors swirling that the storied franchise was about to be sold for what many viewed as pennies on the dollar, the shutout loss to what was perceived to be the lowly Blue Jackets dropped the Habs into last place in the NHL. In that night's game recap, The Gazette called it "the Embarrassment" with a capital 'E.'
Meanwhile, all Tugnutt could do was smile. The one-time Canadiens goalie had circled the game early in the season, hoping he'd get a shot to take on his former team on this cold Monday night a week before Christmas. When he received the opportunity, he delivered a present to both himself and the CBJ fan base, stopping all 27 Montreal shots on goal on the historic occasion.
"The deeper we got into the game, the more I started thinking about it," Tugnutt said in the locker room after the shutout. "I wanted it. I really wanted it."
Twenty years later, Tugnutt -- who played just 15 games as a backup to Patrick Roy in Montreal from 1993-95 -- told BlueJackets.com it's a memory that has stood the test of time.
"Everyone likes to say the goalie got the shutout, but of course the team got the first shutout," said Tugnutt, who also had earned the first win for the expansion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 1993. "I was just part of it, but the thing for me was I didn't have a good relationship, I would say, with the Montreal Canadiens. When I had my time there, it didn't go well, and I did not enjoy my time there and I didn't play well. It was just a time in my career I truly did not enjoy. So to go and do it in that building, that was good for me. I enjoyed that. I do remember it."
Looking back, it's fair to say the matchup featured two teams with a varying history but a similar present. There was no difference between the teams when it came to the standings entering the game, with the two squads tied for last place in the NHL with 22 points as Columbus was 9-20-2-2 while Montreal was 9-20-4-0.
For the Habs, the season was a frustrating, injury-filled slog. A franchise that won its record 24th Stanley Cup in 1993 struggled as the century turned, entering that 2000-01 campaign with two straight seasons of missing the playoffs. Things didn't get off to a much better start this time around, as head coach Alain Vigneault and general manager Réjean Houle were fired after the Canadiens earned just five wins in the first 20 games.
Michel Therrien took over behind the bench, but a team that was led by veterans Saku Koivu, Brian Savage, Martin Rucinsky, Patrice Brisebois and Trevor Linden was racked by injuries. Already out by the time the puck dropped in the Molson Centre were Craig Rivet, Benoit Brunet, Stéphane Robidas and Christian Laflamme. Desperate, the Canadiens on the day of the game traded forward Sergei Zholtok, who had scored 26 goals the year prior but just one in the first 32 games, to Edmonton for young center Chad Kilger.
That was just the trouble on the ice. Off the ice, the majestic franchise was in the throes of upheaval, with owner Molson looking to sell the team as well as its relatively new downtown arena. Reports indicated telecom giant BCE was a front runner to buy the team, but the day of the game, broadcaster TVA revealed it had a sale document, sans signatures, that shockingly would have sold the team to American businessman Jon Ledecky. Whoever would end up buying the franchise, news broke before the game that the sale would be delayed until 2001, adding uncertainty to an already tenuous situation.
Under that cloud of speculation, Columbus came to town looking to find its groove. The expansion team had gone through the typical ups and downs -- mostly downs -- of a first-year franchise, starting just 3-10-1-1 before a four-game winning streak. That was followed immediately by an eight-game losing skid, and the trip to Montreal ended a difficult five-game road swing that included a tie at Phoenix, an overtime loss against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, and consecutive regulation setbacks vs. San Jose and Vancouver.
It was a battle for the basement when the two teams finally hit the ice with more than 3,000 empty seats in the normally rollicking Molson Centre greeting them. Columbus drew first blood 12:03 into the game, as 20-year-old rookie Chris Nielsen slipped off a check in front of the net and was all alone to slide Espen Knutsen's pass by goalie Jeff Hackett to give Columbus a 1-0 lead.
The Blue Jackets doubled the advantage in the second period as this time it was Kevyn Adams who got on the board. Defenseman Deron Quint cut across the offensive zone and fired only to see Hackett get a piece of the puck, but the goalie couldn't control the rebound and Adams was there to jam across the line just 3:59 into the frame to make it 2-0.
That was all Columbus would need, in large part because of Tugnutt. The former Canadiens backstop turned aside 16 shots through the first two periods then made 11 more saves, some of them spectacular, in the third as the Canadiens earned three separate power plays in the final period. Highlights for Tugnutt included a robbery of Koivu in front off a pass from Kilger as well as back-to-back saves on a third-period rush by Eric Landry.
By the end the veteran netminder had his 16th career shutout -- and a puck to take home with him.
"When you get the shutout, you always take the puck," Tugnutt said. "Somebody always gives it to you or you grab it yourself to keep it. I had a shaving kit that I would fill up with certain things, and if I got a shutout puck I'd throw it in there. I always put the shutout puck in there and replaced the shutout puck from the one before. I would only keep one puck in there, so it would be my last shutout and I'd take the one out of my shaving kit and bring it home and put it in my collection.
"I'm trying to figure out where those are in the house. When you move four times, it's not going to be easy. I'd have to tear the garage apart to find them, probably."
While Columbus was happy to head back to its home with a win, Montreal was left to pick up the pieces of what the city considered an embarrassing loss. Adding injury to insult, the high-scoring Rucinsky hurt his knee in a collision with Columbus' Jamie Pushor in the opening minute and would join the list of walking wounded. As the Canadiens struggled to get back in the game, Therrien punched the boards on the Montreal bench, leaving him with a bloodied hand.
Simply put, the Montreal press was not kind in defeat.
"It might have been the worst 24-hour period in the Canadiens' long, storied history," Gazette writer Herb Zurkowsky wrote in Wednesday's paper.
"You name it, it went wrong for the Canadiens on Monday," Gazette columnist Jack Todd added, comparing it to the famed "Blue Monday" in 1981 when the Montreal Expos lost a deciding NLCS game to visiting Los Angeles on a late home run. "This week's Blue Monday … was the Day the mighty Canadiens finally hit rock bottom."
For the Blue Jackets, the win seemed to kick-start something good. Columbus blocked 31 shots in the win, which started a 4-2-2 run. Dave King's squad was never going to compete for a playoff spot -- this was how expansion went back in the pre-Vegas days -- but Tugnutt saw a team that came together as the year went on and began to play the right way, including a 10-8-2 stretch to finish the season that gave the Blue Jackets a respectable 71 points in their inaugural season.
"We actually were pretty competitive," Tugnutt remembers. "You know, we weren't supposed to be competitive, but toward the end, Kinger really had us playing well. We were defending very well and we were winning more games than people expected. Overall, it was a positive year."
