Minnesota, Columbus Prepare for Historic Showdown

ST. PAUL -- The matchup between the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets will be one with many conflicting storylines.
Both the Wild and Jackets, each with lengthy, record-shattering winning streaks, are approaching Saturday's game in much different ways.

"It's game 36," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "It's not the Super Bowl or it's not the Stanley Cup; it's game 36. It's got a good little storyline, but that's all it is."
That angle is also a historic one. For the first time in the history of the United States' four major professional sports leagues, a regular-season game will feature two teams riding winning streaks totaling 12 games or longer (per Elias Sports Bureau).
Each team extended its winning streak Thursday, with Minnesota winning 6-4 over the New York Islanders and Columbus rolling to a 5-3 victory in Winnipeg. The Wild is on a 12-game streak, while the Jackets upped theirs to 14 games, the fifth-longest in NHL history.
While Boudreau has been telling his team to approach the streak with a game-by-game mentality, Columbus coach John Tortorella has been encouraging his club to enjoy it.
"I want our guys to revel in it. I think we have to play better. I don't think we've been on top of our game. We have won, but I don't think we've outplayed teams by any means the last little while," Tortorella said. "Athletes look to hang their hat on something and in a grind of a season. [This is] certainly not anything close to playoffs; it's a good game to be involved in. I'm glad we have the opportunity."
Regardless of the approach, both clubs said the game will be good for the League, which announced on Friday that the matchup will be the featured "free game" on NHL TV, meaning anyone in the country can watch it online free of charge.
With the two teams playing at a high level, the game has a chance to grab attention from people who may otherwise not be tuning in.
"It's fun for the League, it's fun for the fans, it's fun for us too," said Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno. "Just to go up against a really good team, that's the opportunity we have here, to try and get a win against a really good team. We're excited about that."
Although both winning streaks will end at some point, the game has an almost Stanley Cup Playoffs-type feel to it. With the start of the postseason still four months away, and no guarantee that one or both will be there once it arrives, Saturday's matchup provides a nice break from the monotony normally found in a late-December game between teams from different conferences.
"In the middle of an 82-game season, it's pretty neat. It's still game 36 for us, it's two points for us, but it adds a little bit to it, for sure," said Wild forward Eric Staal. "I'm sure our building will be buzzing with excitement, so you've gotta enjoy that, relish the chance to play a fun game during the course of an 82-game season."
It will also be a chance for both teams to take stock of where they are and what they have accomplished as the halfway point of the season approaches.
"It's an interesting game for both teams as far as both teams deserve a lot of credit and they should feel good about what they brought here, where they're at. We know there's a streak, we know there's a streak over there so it kind of doubles up," Tortorella said. "I'm glad we're going to have an opportunity to play in this type of game."

Making history before celebrating it

Call it irony, but with the NHL set to begin a year-long celebration of its 100th year on Sunday, the League will see something that has never been done in its previous 99 years on Saturday night.
Any time a team or a player can take part in something that's gone unachieved so far in the long history of the NHL, it's a special moment.
"It's fun, two teams playing great hockey, finding ways different nights, to be able to meet up with both of those [streaks] intact is pretty rare and pretty special," Staal said. "It's fun to be a part of it and it's fun to have that chance at home."
It sounds weird, considering there are four months remaining in the NHL's regular season, but Staal admitted Friday that he had been checking in on Columbus over the past couple of days, just to make sure it kept its winning streak alive.
"I don't think anybody talked about it or made mention of it, but I was definitely aware [Thursday] that if we won and they won, it was going to come down to [Saturday] and one of the streaks would be over and it would be fun to be a part of that game," Staal said. "We were aware, but it wasn't really talked too much."
After taking care of his own business against the Islanders, Staal headed to his cell phone to see if Columbus was doing the same. He was happy to see that they had.
"It's definitely going to add something to the game," Staal said. "It'll be fun to take part in our building in a game that hasn't happened before in a regular season."