In hindsight, it was a fitting first game in Columbus Blue Jackets history.
There was so much promise, as Columbus raced to a 3-0 lead against the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 7, 2000. And eventually, there was disappointment, as the Blackhawks – who had more than seven decades of professional hockey playing experience on the new Jackets – stormed back with five unanswered goal to take a 5-3 win in Nationwide Arena.
The same could be said of the franchise. Promise first was ignited when the growing central Ohio area was granted its first team in a major pro sport. Promise has been delivered by such players as Rick Nash and Ryan Johansen, and a trio of playoff appearances have restored promise after difficult seasons. But each campaign thus far has ended in disappointment, with Columbus getting no closer than 14 wins away from hoisting a Stanley Cup.
Of course, no one knew that when that first puck dropped in downtown Columbus on an unseasonably cool and windy day a few months after Y2K didn't result in the end of the world.
All there was was promise when the first Columbus Blue Jackets team took the ice. Not exactly a crew of top prospects – sure there was 18-year-old rookie and first-round pick Rostislav Klesla, and hyped young goalie Marc Denis – but the first Blue Jackets team was largely veteran in nature.
The team was older (28.2 years) than league average (27.8) and had top scorers Geoff Sanderson (28 as of Feb. 1), Espen Knutsen (29), Steve Heinze (31), Tyler Wright (27), and David Vyborny (26). Ron Tugnutt was no spring chicken in net at 33, nor were key contributors Kevin Dineen (37), Robert Kron (33) and captain Lyle Odelein (32).
That first squad went 28-39-9-6 and had some notable deficiencies under head coach Dave King. The defense was right around league average (233 goals allowed, seven above average), but scored only 190. Special teams were abysmal, with Columbus scoring on 14.7 percent of power plays and killing just 80.7 percent of penalties.
It didn't take that long for Columbus to earn its first-ever win, though sadly it didn't come in game one. Bruce Gardiner scored the first goal in franchise history 7:34 into action past Jocelyn Thibault off assists from Krzysztof Oliwa and Kevyn Adams, then Vyborny and Heinze tallied in the next 1:46 to make it 3-0. It goes without saying, Nationwide Arena was rocking.
Chicago got it all back nearly as quickly in the second. Reto Von Arx scored past Tugnutt at 6:10, Alex Zhamnov got another on the power play and Tony Amonte tied it at 11:51 to deadlock the game going to the third.
In a story that would become familiar to CBJ fans going forward, Von Arx broke the tie 2:32 into the third. He would go on to score just one more goal in his NHL career. Amonte added the insurance marker and Columbus was a loser in its first try.
A 7-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings in Nationwide Arena followed, but the first road game in team history was sweeter. Columbus headed to Calgary for game three and won 3-2, with Klesla tallying his first NHL goal and Adams scoring twice, including the winner just 4:13 into the third period to break a 2-all tie.
The next few weeks included highs and lows. Columbus lost six straight before the first home win, a 3-1 triumph over Washington, and was 3-10-1-1 before a four-game winning streak. The victories came against San Jose, Phoenix and Dallas in Nationwide Arena before a road triumph at Nashville, moving the team to 7-10-1-1.
But any momentum the team had was short-lived as an eight-game losing streak followed. Hey, nobody ever said it would be easy for an expansion team.
A good note did soon follow, though. Fans packed into Nationwide Arena on Dec. 8, 2000, for Original Six member Boston's first-game in the capital city. Petteri Nummelin and Wright scored in regulation, but the game was tied at 2 after 60 minutes; finally, with just nine seconds left in the extra frame, Sanderson flipped a backhander past Petr Skudra to provide Columbus its first-ever overtime win.
The Blue Jackets wouldn't win in their next four, but the ensuing win Dec. 18 was another historic one in the great hockey city of Montreal. Tugnutt turned aside 27 shots while Chris Nielsen and Adams scored in a 2-0 win that served as the team's first shutout.
Another milestone came Feb. 10 in game 55, the end of a two-game home-and-home with Nashville. Sanderson tallied twice in the first and gave the team a 3-2 lead in the third to complete the team's first hat trick, sending head coverings flying to the Nationwide Arena ice for the first time. Even more importantly, that goal stood up as the winner in the victory over the Predators.
The team never had more than a three-game win streak after the four-gamer early on, but things did end on a high note April 8. Chicago was back in Nationwide Arena just as it was to kick off the campaign, and this time things had a better ending for the home team. Again Columbus blew an early lead, this one 2-0, but it was 3-3 in overtime when Wright ended the first season in franchise history with a goal that gave Columbus a win over the Blackhawks.
It ended a festive season in downtown Columbus. The rocking atmosphere that made the ECHL's Columbus Chill a hot ticket in the 1990s translated to Nationwide Arena, with more than 700,000 fans going through the gates, good enough for 26 sellouts. Fans flocked to Columbus to see their new team, to see the NHL's historic franchises, for a night out, for a civic event, and mostly, to see the birth of something big.
Sure, there was promise and there were disappointments. Vegas will soon see much of the former and likely a lot of the latter, too. After all, only one team reaches the ultimate goal each season.
But just as it has been in Columbus, it will likely be a fun ride. Good luck to the Golden Knights as they get ready to drop the puck. Oh, and try not to pick Matt Calvert tonight.
