WASHINGTON – Outside of the chance to accomplish a feat seen only once in the 100 years of the National Hockey League’s existence, tonight’s game for the Columbus Blue Jackets was going to end in a special way, no matter the result.
It did turn out that Columbus fell to the Washington Capitals, 5-0, ending their 16-game winning streak and coming up just one win shy of tying the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins for the longest succession of wins in league history. After the game, however, another rare occasion unfolded, highlighting the greatness of what the team had embarked on over the past 40 days; John Tortorella actually spoke to the team after the game.
Wait a second. How infrequent could a head coach addressing his team in the locker room after a loss actually be? Almost as infrequent as Columbus’ historic run, as it turns out.
“I usually don’t go into the room, win or lose,” said Tortorella in the jam-packed postgame press conference room. “All year long I haven’t been in there. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t. That is one hell of a run by a hockey team. They should feel really good about it.”
Losing 5-0 to the Washington Capitals will definitely leave a bitter taste as they head back to the Buckeye State. But, when putting their run into perspective, the defeat should allow the team to step back from the anomalous bliss they had been operating under for the better part of two months and really appreciate what they did as a team, and what they’ve done for this franchise.
Consider these facts and figures for a minute…
The Blue Jackets, the league leader with 58 points, have qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs only twice in its 16 years of existence. Almost at this time last year, Tortorella was brought in to replace Todd Richards behind the bench, who was fired after the team started last season with seven straight defeats.
Furthermore, this team is very young; Exactly half of the 18 skaters dressed for tonight’s game were born in 1993 or later – the same year the Penguins set the winning streak record. Seven of those nine players – including four of their six defensemen – were born after Apr. 10, 1993, the day Pittsburgh won consecutive game No. 17 during that run.
So what’s one loss on the way to establishing yourself as one of the league’s best? Asked if the defeat might be a deflating one, given any team in the same situation would want to keep a once-in-a-lifetime run alive for as long as possible, Tortorella, keeping consistent with his normally gruff personality, quickly dismissed that thought.
“It won’t [be a deflator],” Tortorella quickly responded. “I trust the team. I think they have been honest with their play. I think they have a dynamic in that room that we, and we talked about this, ‘Don’t hope you’re going to win; know you’re going to win,’ and I think we’ve crossed that bridge that we know we’re a good hockey club. Not one game is going to deter how we feel about ourselves.”
Along with how the team feels about itself, what the streak may have also done is plant the seeds to creating an identity for a franchise that, for the most part, has had a lack of one since its inception in 2000.
“[We learned] how to carry ourselves in pressure situations,” said captain Nick Foligno when asked about what his team has learned during the winning run. “And also, what it feels like to win and to expect to win every time you step on the ice. I think that’s something that hasn’t been the case here on this team for a long time. We’re building that culture and identity that we talked about, but it’s how we go about our business and how we play the game. That was our bread and butter for the whole streak, for the past 16 games. We just played a consistent style of game and it just got away from us tonight.”
Columbus’ run was probably the crown jewel of the early-season success that the Metropolitan Division has had this season, as five of the eight teams in the division have had win streaks of at least five games at one point during their campaigns. However, an autopsy of the Blue Jackets’ streak shows that only two of the 16 wins came against teams from the division they reside in, with one of those coming against its last-place team, the New York Islanders. It’s probably no coincidence that it took a Metropolitan Division team to take down one of its brethren that just happened to be the hottest team in the league – and almost the hottest, for one stretch, in league annals.
Tonight started a run of four consecutive games for the Blue Jackets within the division as the New York Rangers, just three points behind in the standings, will await the team’s return to Ohio’s capital city. This stretch might tell us more about Columbus’ longstanding viability as a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference than the 40 days prior to tonight.
“I still don’t know who we are,” said Tortorella. “We’ve got to keep on playing, and we’re going to start playing within our division, probably the toughest division in hockey right now. We have a long way to go here to define who we are.”
We don’t know what the definition will look like when it’s time to define the 2016-17 Columbus Blue Jackets, but “16-game winning streak protagonists” and “best team in hockey to start 2017” isn’t bad to have listed as part of that entry. No matter what happens at the end of the season, the Blue Jackets always will have a reminder of how special it once was. More importantly, the streak may be a glimpse into the future of what the culture of hockey will be with the franchise and in the state of Ohio.
But unlike at the end of tonight’s game, don’t expect Tortorella to utter those same sentiments anytime soon.
[Cover photo (Sergei Bobrovsky & Capitals players) courtesy of Rob Carr/Getty Images]
