Looking back, Blue Jackets still remember 16-game win streak as 'insane'

Over time, the details have started to fade some in the mind, but the feelings remain.

At this moment nine years ago, the Blue Jackets were in the midst of historic run, the likes of which the franchise and the NHL have rarely seen.

Columbus became the story of the league by winning 16 straight games – not just the longest winning streak in team history, but the second longest in the more than 100 years of NHL hockey.

It lasted more than a month, with Columbus winning its final game of November, all 14 games in December and one more in January. Though the Blue Jackets finished one short of tying the league’s all-time record, the accomplishment remains one that is remembered fondly both by the CBJ fanbase and the players who took part.

“That streak was insane, for lack of a better word,” then-captain Nick Foligno said.

“It was a lot of fun to play hockey, for sure,” defenseman David Savard added.

The Blue Jackets not only turned heads across the NHL and sports worlds, they excited a fan base that was looking for a reason to believe. They also kick-started the most successful era in franchise history, going on to make the postseason for four straight seasons.

It was a team and an organization on the rise, led by one of the league’s all-time best coaches who was just beginning to put his stamp on the franchise in John Tortorella. A leadership core featuring such names as Foligno, alternate captains Boone Jenner and Jack Johnson, as well as Cam Atkinson and Seth Jones was putting its imprint on things. And an exciting rookie named Zach Werenski burst onto the scene and in many ways served as the straw that stirred the drink.

“I probably thought winning in this league was easier than it is,” Werenski said with a chuckle. “I walked into this team at a really good time. Obviously like 20 games into my career, we go on a 16-game winning streak. It was a lot of fun going through it. It felt like we were never going to lose. Some games we didn’t play great, but we found ways to win.

“I was definitely spoiled coming into my career with that. It’s good memories for sure.”

While the games certainly weren’t easy – a lot has to go right to reach such heights – the Blue Jackets were dominant at times. Columbus outscored its foes 62-27 during the 16 games, and they trailed in just six of the contests. In all, Columbus led its 16 opponents for more than 589 minutes during the streak, trailing for just over 70. Their 3.88 goals per game placed second in the NHL, while the Blue Jackets allowed just 1.69 goals per game, first in the league.

Perhaps the craziest stat of all? The Blue Jackets trailed just once in the third period during the entire streak.

"It’s hard to explain, honestly,” Savard said. “You’ve lived through the other side when you feel like you can’t do anything right and you find ways to lose games. I think we just found ways to win games. I think we obviously got some lucky bounces, but also the way we were playing, the way we bonded with each other, we created that luck a little bit.”

Finding Their Footing

The mid-2010s were a time of change for the Blue Jackets, with some key moments standing out among others. There was the page-turning trade of franchise icon Rick Nash in the summer of 2012, followed by the hiring of Jarmo Kekäläinen as the NHL’s first European-born general manager in 2013.

Amid all the turnover, the Blue Jackets nearly rallied to make the playoffs in the shortened 2013 season and then did so in 2014, qualifying for the second time in franchise history, but they couldn’t keep the momentum going in the two years after. A late rally couldn’t save an injury-plagued season in 2014-15, and seven straight losses to begin the 2015-16 season led to the dismissal of head coach Todd Richards.

Enter Tortorella, the 2004 Stanley Cup champion who was brought in to create a culture change. He had won big in previous stints in Tampa Bay and New York, but a disappointing one-year reign in Vancouver in 2013-14 led to Tortorella being available when the Blue Jackets came calling.

The rest of the 2015-16 season was a learning experience for both the players and their new coach. Tortorella immediately went to work to instill what he wanted in his squad, and a massive trade in early January sent dynamic young center Ryan Johansen to Nashville for Jones. Columbus somewhat righted the ship the rest of the way, going 34-33-8 in 75 games under Tortorella, but still finished last in the Metropolitan Division.

Going into the 2016-17 season, the Blue Jackets knew they’d have Jones for a full season, as well as much of the leadership core back. In the summer, the team made one under-the-radar acquisition that proved to be a difference maker, signing 27-year-old center Sam Gagner from Philadelphia.

Anticipated growth also came from the team’s young core, including the promotion of Werenski, forward Josh Anderson and forward Lukáš Sedlák, who had been key parts of the Lake Erie Monsters team that won the AHL’s Calder Cup championship in 2016. The Blue Jackets also signed defenseman Markus Nutivaara, a 2015 seventh-round draft pick, from his native Finland.

When players reported, they were greeted by the grind of a Tortorella training camp, including the famous two-mile run and seemingly endless skate tests in the opening days of practice.

“Honestly, it was the first year under Torts where it was like his camp, his grind,” Foligno said. “He came in the year before and that was his first year, so he set his rules in place, but he didn’t really – as he would say – get some skin until the following year.”

Added Savard: “I think he changed the way the team was going, just with the work ethic, the practices. I think he lifted the standard for our team to where we needed to be if we wanted to be a playoff team, and he did such a good job of keeping everybody honest.”

No one knew exactly what to expect from the Blue Jackets at the start of the campaign, and the season opener vs. Boston brought both excitement and disappointment. Alexander Wennberg scored just 2:58 into the game and Cam Atkinson added a power-play tally later in the first, bringing Nationwide Arena to its feet, but the Bruins rallied to send the Blue Jackets to a 6-3 loss.

Another home loss to San Jose followed, but the Blue Jackets started to find their form. Columbus downed Chicago to earn its first win in the third game, then started a four-game road trip with a 3-0 win at Dallas.

They had improved to 4-3-1 leading into what became one of the most memorable nights in Nationwide Arena history. Columbus jumped all over visiting Montreal, scoring three times in the first period, five more in the second and then cruising home to a 10-0 win, the biggest in franchise history.

It was just one game, to be sure, but it started to show the Blue Jackets that they might be for real.

“Honestly, it doesn’t happen to bad teams, I would say,” Savard noted. “The years we were struggling a little bit earlier, I don’t think we would have won 10-0.”

As the month of November moved along, the Blue Jackets kept grinding out points, and they were sitting at 11-5-4 after earning three points in a two-game trip to Tampa Bay and Florida after the Thanksgiving holiday.

“And then it just clicked,” Foligno said.

The Streak Begins

If the Blue Jackets were starting to solidify themselves as a potential contender, it’s fair to say Columbus remained a little bit skeptical. Just 10,366 fans turned out to Nationwide Arena on Tuesday, Nov. 29, for a midweek affair against the Lightning.

Those that did show up, though, saw a dominant victory. William Karlsson scored 5:30 into the game, Wennberg and Anderson increased the lead to 3-0 after two periods, and Scott Hartnell and Gagner added tallies in the third as the Jackets cruised to a 5-1 victory.

From there, the Blue Jackets hit the road West for a quick trip to Colorado and Arizona, earning a pair of 3-2 victories. Columbus built a 2-0 lead against the Avs only to watch Colorado tie the game, but Jenner scored with 11:03 to go and Bobrovsky made the lead hold up as Columbus outshot Colorado by a 37-20 margin.

Two nights later in Arizona, the Blue Jackets came as close to losing as they would during the entire streak despite putting franchise-record 60 shots on goalie Mike Smith. Jenner scored just 13 seconds into the game, but the Coyotes led 2-1 in the final moments until Wennberg tallied with 2:16 to go. From there, the game went to a shootout, with Atkinson and Gagner scoring and Curtis McElhinney stopping both Arizona shots.

Two days later, a return trip by the Coyotes to Nationwide Arena led to a much smoother 4-1 victory for the Blue Jackets, as Gagner scored twice and Foligno notched the winner on the power play in the second. The streak reached five on Dec. 9 at Detroit with another 4-1 win that featured an early shorthanded goal from Atkinson, a second-period winner from Brandon Dubinsky and insurance goals from Sedlák – his first career NHL goal – and Gagner.

A night later, Columbus returned to Nationwide Arena and scored four goals in the third period to beat the Islanders by a 6-2 final, as Anderson, Brandon Saad, Sedlak and Jones tallied within a span of 12:04.

At that point, the Blue Jackets were rolling in all phases of the game.

“It’s just little things within the game – game management, certain breakdowns at key moments,” Werenski said. “We just eliminated all that during those 16 games where we were structurally sound, we scored on the power play, we scored on our chances, our goalies played great.”

Next up was a trip to Western Canada, but the momentum didn’t subside. Columbus began the trip with a 3-1 win at Edmonton, limiting second-year standout Connor McDavid to just one shot on goal and breaking a 1-1 tie in the third with a power-play goal by Atkinson and an insurance marker by Matt Calvert. Three nights later was a 4-1 victory at Calgary in which the Jackets never trailed, with Jenner, Saad, Gagner and Calvert scoring.

History then beckoned on a Sunday afternoon in Vancouver, as Tortorella would become the first American-born coach to win 500 games at the NHL level with a victory. Columbus built leads of 2-0 and 3-2 thanks in part to two goals from Saad, but the Canucks tied the game with 1:09 to go. It took just 46 seconds of overtime, though, for Jones to convert Atkinson’s pass to give the Blue Jackets the 4-3 win.

Afterward, Foligno presented the game puck to Tortorella – who had downed his former team – in the locker room.

“We were like, ‘Hey guys, it’s Torts’ 500th win,’” Foligno remembers with a laugh. “He just goes, ‘This doesn’t mean (crap), but thank you.’ He could care less, you know? That’s how he was. And you know what, I think that’s what embodied our team. No one cared about the individual success. We were enjoying how good of a team we were becoming.”

Making History

Columbus then returned to Nationwide Arena for a four-game homestand, and by then, people had noticed. Three of the four holiday contests would be sellouts, giving the Blue Jackets a boost and showing the impact of the streak on a fan base that was wanting to believe.

A familiar face – one who brought out the emotion in the Nationwide crowd – greeted the Blue Jackets for the first game Dec. 20. Los Angeles was in town, and Jeff Carter did everything he could to end the Jackets’ run, answering a pair of Atkinson goals with two of his own. Thanks in part to 44 saves from McElhinney, the game went to a shootout at 2-2, with Atkinson and Gagner scoring to give the Jackets their 10th straight win.

Two nights later, Nationwide Arena was wired, with more than 19,000 fans in the building for a contest against rival Pittsburgh. Sidney Crosby scored 2:39 into the game, but the Blue Jackets built a 3-1 lead after two and put the home crowd into hysterics in the third. Hartnell finished a hat trick and both Saad and Jenner scored – all in a span of 3:40 – as the Jackets romped to a 7-1 final and moved into first place in the Metropolitan Division.

Afterward, Tortorella gave one of his iconic, only-as-Tortorella-can quotes.

"We were really nervous, and we talked about it in between the periods, we talked about how we've been playing in this league and that's when I thought they took a great step mentally," Tortorella said. "They believed they could win, where in the first period I thought we were wetting our pants. So it's a great process to go through for a young team to go find its way in the last two periods."

There could have been a letdown a night later, but Columbus took care of business with a 2-1 win over a Montreal team smarting over the 10-0 game to head into Christmas with 12 straight wins. Gagner scored a power-play goal in the first, Saad made it 2-0 in the second and Bobrovsky made 36 saves to make the lead stand.

The Blue Jackets kept on rolling after the break, getting some revenge on Boston by earning a 4-3 victory and reach a lucky 13th win. Columbus led 3-0 less than 10 minutes in before the Bruins again rallied, tying the score in the second, but Foligno’s wraparound, power-play goal with 9:14 left was the difference.

Win No. 14 came on Dec. 29 in Winnipeg, as the Blue Jackets captured a 5-3 game north of the border. Wennberg scored goals in the second and third period to give Columbus a 4-1 lead, with Sedlák adding an insurance marker late.

After that win, the most memorable game of the streak arrived. As the Blue Jackets went back to their locker room, they turned their sights to Minnesota, their New Year’s Eve opponent who had won 11 games in a row going into that night. Columbus quickly checked the score and saw the Wild had defeated the Islanders at home, setting up the first-ever game in North American major sports history in which both teams had won at least 12 games in a row.

“I remember us being like, ‘Oh my God, I wonder if Minnesota won?’” Foligno said. “Because we were both undefeated in the last little bit, we were both on streaks, and sure enough (they did). I remember being like, this is going to be a game. This is going to be a lot of fun."

That it was. The Xcel Energy Center was packed with more than 19,000 fans for the showdown, and both teams seemed to know what was at stake in a physical, intense affair. The tensions boiled over early in the second, as Anderson fought Chris Stewart, who pumped up the crowd by flapping his arms as he headed to the penalty box. Before the puck could drop again, Calvert and Matt Dumba got into a separate scrum.

“It was a weird game, a lot of stuff going on for a regulation game,” Savard said.

But through it all, the Blue Jackets kept their heads and never trailed, Atkinson scored in the first period, then Johnson and Atkinson tallied in a 15-second span of the second. Jones added an insurance marker later in the period and the Blue Jackets got to 15 straight wins with a 4-2 victory.

“It didn’t disappoint,” Foligno said. “I remember going into that rink and the crowd was nuts. The fan base was crazy. The energy in the rink was nuts, and it felt like a playoff game. I know Matt Calvet fought somebody, Andy fought, and it was a war. Like, it was a bloodbath. And for us to come out on top, I think it just energized our whole group.”

Again wary of a letdown, the Blue Jackets returned home to take on Edmonton on Jan. 3, and the turning of the calendar from 2016 to ‘17 didn’t change the result. Atkinson and Karlsson scored power-play goals, Foligno extended the lead in the third and the Blue Jackets got one away from the NHL record with a 3-1 victory.

The End

As the Blue Jackets put the wins together, interest built not just from CBJ fans but the sports community at large. A chance to make league history was in front of the team, and considering it was early January, the hype was a little unusual.

“Every game kind of felt like its own little playoff game from that little point on, and I thought it was such a cool thing to have in the middle of the season,” Foligno said. “The only problem is you don’t want to feel like you’re playing playoffs in the middle of the year. I just remember it becoming way bigger than we wanted it to be.

“I think when we went into Washington, the streak is on the line, ESPN was all over it. Media were interviewing us, and now it almost felt like we were the hunted as opposed to the hunters, and then it was a tough ending.”

Washington was no pushover, as the Caps were 23-9-5 entering the game and boasting such familiar names as Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson, Nicklas Bäckström and Braden Holtby.

With history on the line, all Blue Jackets clutch goals and lucky bounces that marked the streak simply didn’t materialize. Washington scored twice in the first and second periods and added a final marker in the third, downing the Blue Jackets by a 5-0 score.

“I remember how we lost the streak – us getting dominated by Washington,” Werenski said.

“We got smacked pretty good,” Jenner said.

With that, it was over, but it was hard not to be proud of what the team accomplished. Atkinson led the Blue Jackets with 10 goals and 18 points during the stretch, while Saad had eight goals, 16 points and a plus-13 rating. Gagner (7-9-16) and Wennberg (4-11-15) were huge parts of the run, while Foligno had five goals and 14 points and Hartnell (5-6-11) and Jones (4-7-11) each reached double digits in scoring.

Bobrovsky, meanwhile, was simply unbelievable, starting and winning 14 contests and posting an NHL-best .941 save percentage and 1.64 goals-against average during the run.

“You’re having so much fun,” Jenner said. “It just seemed like we had a thing going that even if we were down one in the third or it was going to overtime or whatever, we kind of knew we were going to win. Guys were stepping up. Every night, there would be somebody step up and score a huge goal for us.”

The Legacy Lives On

While Columbus finished one game short of tying Pittsburgh’s record 17-game win streak in 1993, the Blue Jackets can look back fondly at their place in the record books. Two seasons ago, Edmonton won 16 games in a row to reach that rarefied air, and as the Oilers got closer and closer, Foligno was reminded of what the Blue Jackets accomplished.

“It was cool when it came up because I was like, ‘Wow, we’re that team. We’re right there,’” Foligno said. “It was kind of neat to see. But I just remember how much fun we had as a group, just rolling into every city and playing at home and our fanbase getting behind it. We haven’t really had a ton of postseason success, so having those moments in the season for our fans who are unbelievable was pretty gratifying for us.”

Perhaps more importantly, the streak kicked off the most successful eras of Blue Jackets hockey, with all the fits and starts of previous years finally overcome. Columbus went on to make the playoffs that season as well as the next three and earned its first series victory in 2019 when they swept Tampa Bay.

“Honestly, I think it was the start of, ‘Holy (cow), we’re really building a culture here,’” Foligno said. “That’s what I take out of it more than anything. We had a group of guys that was like, ‘All right, we’re young and we’re hungry and we can be a really good team. This is exciting, and we want more of this.’ It started to really turn us into this core group of guys that really wanted to be part of bringing something special to the team.”

Everything came together at this point nine years ago when the Blue Jackets accomplished something few in the NHL have. A hungry team, a demanding coach and a yearning fan base all came together to make a milestone that lives on.

“I think going into that year we knew what to expect with Torts coming in the year prior and not making the playoffs, and we wanted to do a lot better,” Jenner said. “We knew we had it in the room. We got off to a good start, and that seemed to just be really where we clicked and realized how good of a team we can be. Obviously when you win 16 in a row, things are going good and you’re playing the right way, and that’s the blueprint of how we wanted to play for the next many years.”