Promise of young season beckons Jackets
Thursday night brings the Blue Jackets' 20th home opener, which should be an event on top of an event — a Big Show — but instead will be just another television program without a studio audience.
Once again, curse you, COVID-19, and all of your mutations.
There will come a time when Jackets fans look back on 2020-21 as a marker, like: “Remember when they opened the season in January and there wasn't even a lockout? Damned virus.”
Thursday night, the building will be empty — but there will still be a new sheet of ice and the beckoning of another season. The Stanley Cup is still anybody's to take. The home opener is here.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are in town, and good on the schedule-makers for that. Two years ago, the Jackets swept the mighty Lightning in the greatest first-round upset in NHL playoff history. Last year, the Lightning extracted their revenge: They showed they were just as tough, and vastly more talented, and they bounced their erstwhile nemeses from the playoff bubble.
The Lightning went on to win the
Stanley Cup as summer turned autumn.
And here we are today, in the dead of winter, with a new season up and running as the pandemic peaks. Remember: New sheet of ice and all of that.
After Tuesday, the Jackets (1-2-1) were in sixth place in the newfangled Central Division — but it’s so early yet, they were only a point out of first. They were tied for 23rd in the league with eight goals scored and they still haven’t converted on their power play. If this doesn’t look familiar, you weren’t paying attention last season.
This year they’re trying to open up the offense and, as yet, the floodgates are stuck. In general terms, one might describe their first four games as soft, stilted and less than tenacious. It looks like everyone is waiting for someone else to make something happen, and it looks like Pierre-luc Dubois — the topline center who has requested a trade — is waiting harder than anyone else.
Again, it’s early. It’s like standing on a hill in Acadia National Park as the sun is clearing the eastern horizon. Thursday brings the home opener.
If Jackets history is any measure, then the home opener will not provide clues about how the rest of the season will trend. The Jackets’ record in home openers — seven wins, nine losses, one overtime loss, one shootout loss and one tie — describes the 20-year arc of the franchise more than any one season.
In fact, in the six seasons the Jackets have made the playoffs, four times did they lose their home opener. They’re 1-3 in their past four home openers, over a span when they finally found a measure of consistent success.
Through 20 years, Rick Nash remains to
the most important, and most prolific, of Blue Jackets. He was also a monster in home openers. He played in eight of them at Nationwide Arena and had seven goals and 11 points.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 draft, Nash scored on the second shot of his career in a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. He scored two goals in a 4-0, home-opener victory over Anaheim in 2007.
A year later, Nash had another brace in a 5-3 victory over Nashville. It was probably the most significant homeopener victory in franchise history. Back then, both teams were in the Central — and the Predators had a 15-0-1 record against the Jackets before the puck dropped that night. The roof shook
at Nationwide.
David Vyborny is another significant player in this conversation. An Original Jacket, he scored the second goal in franchise history. (Bruce Gardner scored the first, on Oct. 7, 2000, when the Jackets blew a three-goal lead and lost 5-3 to the Blackhawks.)
Vyborny had three goals and four assists in six home openers. His rightwing successor is Cam Atkinson, who has scored seven goals on opening nights in Columbus. Atkinson has had at least one goal in six of the past eight home openers. Atkinson is one of 13 Jackets skaters who has yet to score a goal this season. Maybe he’s due.
Choosing the most rousing homeopener victory among seven wins over
19 seasons is a subjective endeavor. Beating the Predators — “Darth Vader” as coach Ken Hitchcock called them — is up there. I’d pick the 5-0 romp over the New York Rangers in 2003.
In their previous meeting in Columbus the year before, the Jackets had whipped the Rangers 6-3 and the teams had an all-timer of a line brawl. In the return match on opening night, Nash and Vyborny each had a goal, Jody Shelley had a heavyweight bout against Dale Purinton and Marc Denis posted one of the three home-opener shutouts in franchise history.
Thursday night, the sun once again peeks over the eastern horizon. Or something like that.
marace@dispatch.com