Talking A Blue Streak

But That’s Not the Whole Story—What’s Captivating the NHL Is the Tale of a Starless Columbus Team That, After Winning All of 34 Games Last Season, Won 16 Straight and Has the Best Record in the League.

- Alex Prewitt

FORGET TELEVISION ratings, ticket sales and the flock of national media at Washington’s Verizon Center on Jan. 5. The most revealing measure of mainstream interest in the NHL is seated on press row, munching popcorn, muttering observations and watching this season’s best story play out before him.

Under typical circumstances in D.C., the pregame spotlight is trained on Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals, runaway Presidents’ Trophy winners in 2015–16. But these are strange times. (Just look a few blocks west on Pennsylvania Avenue next week.) And in hockey, strange times mean ESPN dispatches analyst Barry Melrose, during an otherwise ordinary period in the schedule, for an on-location appearance in the nation’s capital. Why? The visitors, the Columbus Blue Jackets, were looking to run their winning streak to 17 games, the all-time record set by the Penguins in 1992–93.

On this Thursday night, a 5–0 loss to Washington kept Columbus from tying the record, but Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella betrayed little rage when he walked into his postgame press conference and immediately said, “S---, huh?” The Pittsburgh record holders had Scotty Bowman behind the bench and included two future Hall of Famers (Ron Francis, Mario Lemieux, Joe Mullen, Larry Murphy) and one sure-to-be inductee (Jaromir Jagr) in its lineup. These Blue Jackets, on the other hand, have reached the playoffs twice in their 16-year history and have never advanced past the first round. Streaks come and go—and this one went—but the turnaround in central Ohio is nonetheless remarkable.