Changing the Game

by Stephen Laroche

  NHL hockey made its official return to Ohio on October 7 when the Jackets hosted the Chicago Blackhawks. Bruce Gardiner managed to score their first goal that evening, but they lost by a 5–3 margin. Their first victory came against the Calgary Flames five days later, and they put together an impressive four-game winning streak soon after. The club hit a major roadblock immediately after that, though, and lost eight games in a row before going .500 for the rest of the year.

  For much of the 2000–01 season, the Blue Jackets remained competitive, but very streaky at times, and finished the year with 71 points. From a box office perspective, they were a success and sold out on 26 occasions — including their last 15 home dates. Tugnutt established a new record for most wins in a season by a modern expansion goalie with 22, and Sanderson bounced back to reach the 30-goal mark for the first time since 1996–97.

  Since then, the Blue Jackets have been a bit of a hard-luck franchise. They have faced great tragedies such as the 2002 death of 13-year-old fan Brittanie Cecil, who was killed when she was struck in the head by a puck, after which the NHL made it mandatory for all of its arenas to install nylon mesh nets to protect spectators.

  The club had the first overall pick in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft and selected Rick Nash, who is their all-time leader in most offensive categories. However, their draft record has some questionable picks like Nikolai Zherdev, Alexandre Picard and Nikita Filatov, who never panned out for them. After the lockout, the team still had trouble picking up momentum, and MacLean was eventually fired in 2007. Several months before he was dismissed, though, he hired the talented Ken Hitchcock as their coach, and he finally led them to the playoffs in 2008–09 with the strong play of rookie goalie Steve Mason. Unfortunately, they were swept by the Detroit Red Wings in the opening round. They have not been back to the postseason up to the end of the 2012–13 season.

  In 2010–11, Columbus unveiled a new third jersey that players hated and briefly had a cannon-shaped mascot, which was quickly scrapped because of its phallic design and unpopularity with fans. In the summer of 2011, they signed Jeff Carter, who wouldn’t last the season, and GM Scott Howson staged an ugly public battle with Nash, who had privately requested a trade.

  The future of NHL hockey in Columbus often looks doubtful. Attendance has dropped to all-time lows in recent years and has actually slowly moved downward since the 2001–02 season. Since the death of McConnell, his family has taken over the team and doesn’t seem exactly friendly toward the sport of hockey. In 2013–14, the club has begun play in the Eastern Conference and it is hoped that their years of futility may soon come to an end.

  Rostislav Klesla

  Kevin Dineen

  Geoff Sanderson

  Between 1992–93 and 1996–97, Sanderson hit the 30-goal mark four times with the Hartford Whalers, but in the three seasons that followed, his numbers dipped greatly, and it seemed to many that his best days might be behind him. In reality, he simply wasn’t being used enough and as a result, the Blue Jackets ended up with perhaps the biggest steal of the 2000 NHL Expansion Draft when they claimed him from the Buffalo Sabres.

  In the early stages of the season, Sanderson was showing glimpses of a return to his old form, but after about 30 games he began scoring at a greater pace. On December 8, 2000, he recorded the first overtime game-winner for Columbus in a victory over the Boston Bruins and 15 days later had his first three-point game of the year against the New York Islanders.

  The January 10, 2001, game against the Colorado Avalanche was the 700th of Sanderson’s NHL career. He went on to record the first hat trick in franchise history one month later in a 3–2 win over the Nashville Predators. On March 9, he recorded his 30th goal of the season on Trevor Kidd of the Florida Panthers and became just the third player to reach that mark with an expansion team since 1991–92. That total might have been higher, but he suffered a knee injury against the Calgary Flames five days later to bring an end to a successful first season with the Blue Jackets.

  Espen Knutsen

  The man known to teammates as “Shampoo” returned to NHL action in 2000–01 after a two-year absence, and the Blue Jackets got a prime performer from the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim for a mere fourth-round draft pick.

  A skilled playmaker who led Columbus in assists and shooting percentage during their inaugural NHL season, Knutsen was the heart and soul of the team’s power play. He put up 25 of his assists while the other side was penalized. He sat out of the team’s first eight games because of a broken finger sustained in the pre-season, but after a slight adjustment back to the North American game (he had played in the Swedish Elite League after his first brief NHL stint), he was one of the most reliable scorers for the Blue Jackets.

  Interestingly, only one of his 11 goals in 2000–01 was scored at home. He recorded his first multi-goal game against his old teammates from Anaheim on February 25, 2001 — the first of which came just 17 seconds into the opening period. His best performance was saved for the Calgary Flames, however, when he set a club standard by earning five assists on March 24.

  David Vyborny

  Vyborny was on the radar of NHL scouts when he was a teenager and he was a second-round pick of the Edmonton Oilers in 1993. He tried the AHL on for size in 1994–95 with the Cape Breton Oilers but went back to the Czech Republic soon after to play for Sparta Praha. A regular on the international scene from that point forward, he helped take his country to three gold medal finishes at the IIHF World Championship between 1996 and 2000.

  Vyborny was hot out of the gate and not only scored in the season opener, but also followed it up with goals in back-to-back games on October 14 and 15, 2000. In the latter contest, he scored on a penalty shot against Rob Tallas of the Chicago Blackhawks. On January 21, 2001, he recorded the first game-winning goal of his career just 27 seconds into the third period as the Blue Jackets downed the Tampa Bay Lightning by a score of 3–1.

  After a rough stretch in February when Vyborny scored just a single point, he bounced back the next month with nine points. On March 19, he set an NHL rookie record by scoring his second penalty shot goal of the year on Tomas Vokoun of the Nashville Predators. Five days later, he had a goal and two assists in a 6–4 triumph over the Calgary Flames. At the end of the season, he suited up for the Czech Republic once again and won yet another gold medal at the Worlds.

  Lyle Odelein

  One of hockey’s toughest customers in the 1990s, Odelein missed out on winning a second career Stanley Cup when he was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes by the New Jersey Devils late in the 1999–00 season. Despite a good showing down the stretch, he was exposed in the expansion draft and was taken by the Blue Jackets.

  Odelein was given the honour of being the first captain in franchise history, and his leadership was certainly going to be needed during the team’s debut season. He recorded an assist during the opening game against Chicago and his first goal of the season came on November 22, 2000, against Colorado. While facing the Avalanche again on January 10, 2001, he reached a career milestone by recording his 200th point with an assist on Bruce Gardiner’s third period goal.

  Perhaps an even greater milestone he reached during the 2000–01 campaign was the 2,000 career penalty minute plateau. He marked this record during the final outing of the year on April 8 when he went to the box on a roughing call at 16:49 of the first period. He was more than willing to drop the gloves for the Blue Jackets and got into 10 scraps with players who included Chris Dingman, Bob Probert and Georges Laraque.

  Lyle Odelein

  Ron Tugnutt

  Tugnutt played on his fair share of teams that faced big uphill challenges throughout much of his NHL career. The Blue Jackets made sure to sign him because of his grace under pressure, providing stability in net during their first season in the league. His two most recent teams at the time, Ottawa and Pittsburgh, did attempt to re-sign him but the contract offer from Columbus was impossible to refuse.

  It was money well spent for the new club, as T
ugnutt won his first game (which was also the initial win in franchise history) against Calgary on October 12, 2000, and had an impressive four-game winning streak during the early part of November. His first shutout of the year, which was also again the first for Columbus, came while playing one of his old clubs, the Montreal Canadiens, on December 18.

  During the stretch toward the postseason, Tugnutt’s play between the pipes kept the Jackets in contention as long as possible, as he went 8–4–1 over his last 13 appearances. By the end of the season, after 22 victories, he had established a new NHL record for most wins by a goalie during an expansion year and also finished ninth in the league in save percentage.

  Ron Tugnutt

  EXPANSION YEAR RECORD: 25–39–13–5

  (68 points — fifth in Northwest Division)

  COACH: Jacques Lemaire

  GENERAL MANAGER: Doug Risebrough

  FIRST GAME: October 6, 2000 —

  3–1 loss vs. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim

  FIRST GOAL: October 6, 2000 by Marian Gaborik

  MINNESOTA

  WILD

  The relocation of the Minnesota North Stars in 1993 caused great sadness among the state’s hockey fans, and while high school and college hockey continued to thrive, there was still a ceaseless desire to bring back the NHL game.

  On June 25, 1997, the Minnesota Hockey Ventures Group, headed up by Bob Naegele Jr., was granted an NHL franchise that was set to begin play during the 2000–01 campaign. A few months later, they announced several potential names for the team, and the official announcement that they were to be called the Wild came on January 22, 1998.

  They were set to play in the all-new Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, and the main architect for the club was to be former NHL player and Calgary Flames general manager Doug Risebrough. He hired former teammate Guy Lapointe to work in the scouting department, and on June 19, 2000, he scored a major coup by landing the celebrated Jacques Lemaire to act as their first coach.

  A mere four days later, the team began to assemble a good part of its original lineup through the 2000 NHL Expansion Draft. Although few of the players had any name recognition, they certainly fell into the type of system that Lemaire wanted them to play. On June 24, the team had the third overall pick in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft and grabbed its first franchise player in the form of Marian Gaborik.

  It was fitting that Gaborik scored the first-ever goal for the Wild during the season opener on October 6 in a 3–1 loss to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Their start was a bit rough as they tied Philadelphia in their home opener five days later and finally registered their first win on October 18 in a 6–5 squeaker with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

  The Wild had a rotating captaincy in their early years, but they later abandoned the idea to focus on having just one on-ice leader at a time.

  The game that may have made the trials of that first season worthwhile, though, was when the Dallas Stars came to town on December 17. The former North Stars were shut down that night by a score of 6–0 and emotions ran high for the crowd. Over the course of the 2000–01 season, the Wild never won more than two games in a row, but their defensive record was impressive for an expansion team. They finished 12th in the NHL with 210 goals against, but their pitiful offence was dead last in the league with just 168 goals.

  Finishing well out of a playoff spot, they did perform well at home and even had a nine-game unbeaten streak there at one point. The fans, realizing what they had missed over the previous seven years, came out in droves for every game, and the Wild set a record for largest attendance for an expansion team with more than 750,000 fans coming through the turnstiles.

  Over the next few seasons, Minnesota continued to build on its success and showed steady improvement before making the playoffs for the first time in 2002–03. They went all the way to the Western Conference final that year but have made the postseason only twice since that time. In 2007–08, they won their first Northwest Division championship but have slid in the standings since then. Gaborik spent more time with the club than any other player in franchise history and holds several records, but he now plays for the Los Angeles Kings.

  With stars like Mikko Koivu and Niklas Backstrom, the current club continues to be competitive and is owned by Minnesota Sports & Entertainment, which is headed by former Nashville Predators owner Craig Leipold. The fans continue to pack the Xcel Center, but the team’s 409-game sellout streak ended in 2010. In 2011–12, the arena was not filled to capacity and the major factor for this decline is the fact that they have not made the playoffs in four years. Luckily, the club returned to playoff action during the shortened 2012–13 campaign. Should they continue to improve, hockey-mad Minnesotans are sure to be filling every seat once again.

  Scott Pellerin

  By the late 1990s, Pellerin had established himself as a regular with the St. Louis Blues and he hit the 20-goal mark for the first and only time of his career in 1998–99. The following season saw his production drop by half, and the Wild were able to claim his rights during the expansion draft.

  Given a new opportunity to get more ice time with the new club, Pellerin was able to regain some of his offensive momentum and was leading the team with 39 points after his first 58 appearances. He recorded assists in the team’s first two outings and was brilliant with a goal and three assists against the Tampa Bay Lightning on October 18, 2000. Exactly one month later, he had another three helpers in a battle with the Boston Bruins.

  Through December and January, he easily outpaced his teammates in scoring and had five two-point games in that span. The former Hobey Baker Award winner cooled off a bit in February, though, and was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes for two draft picks and an obscure prospect named Askhat Rakhmatullin who never made it beyond the ECHL.

  Marian Gaborik

  Gaborik was considered one of the most promising young talents in the world heading into the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, as he had helped Slovakia to a bronze medal at the 1999 IIHF World Junior Championship and averaged nearly a point per game with the Dukla Trencin club. The New York Islanders and Atlanta Thrashers passed on the chance to select him on draft day, but he was a perfect budding star for the Wild to build their team around.

  During his NHL debut against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim on October 6, 2000, Gaborik scored on veteran Guy Hebert, but it was not enough in a 3–1 loss. He helped Minnesota secure its first victory at home 12 days later with a pair of goals on the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning and during his first month in the league, made a very good impression. Because the Wild had such a defensive focus from the start, Gaborik did not rack up a ton of points as a freshman, but he finished second on the team in scoring and ranked among the league’s rookie leaders. From January 17 to February 6, 2001, he recorded nine points over a seven-game span and part of that streak included a pair of goals against the Los Angeles Kings. He missed some time at the end of the season as a result of an abdominal strain, but his freshman campaign was deemed a success.

  Marian Gaborik

  Lubomir Sekeras

  A hard-shooting defenceman who spent many years playing professionally in his native Slovakia along with the Czech Republic, Sekeras helped take his countrymen to a memorable silver medal finish at the 2000 IIHF World Championship. The Wild took notice of his six points over seven tournament games and took a chance by selecting him in the eighth round of that summer’s NHL Entry Draft.

  It turned out to be one of the club’s shrewdest moves, as Sekeras ended up being their top offensive power from the back end and was second in assists behind Scott Pellerin. On October 15, 2000, he scored his first NHL goal against Edmonton’s Joaquin Gage and it was the first tally made by a Minnesota defender. A little less than a month later, he scored twice and added an assist in another loss to the Oilers. Six days after that, the Wild met the Boston Bruins and he scored twice, one of those tallies proving the game-winner.

  Toward the end of the season, Sekeras put together a four-game point streak in early
March and then joined his countrymen for the Worlds once again.

  Sean O’Donnell

  A solid pickup by the Wild in the 2000 NHL Expansion Draft, O’Donnell made a good impression with fans during his brief tenure with the club. Although he was selected from the scraps the Los Angeles Kings offered up to the new clubs, he was considered a dependable defender who could make some small offensive contributions when necessary.

  His first goal of the 2000–01 campaign was one of the biggest for Minnesota’s first season. The team’s first captain, he scored the difference-maker in a 5–3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on December 27, 2000. Another game-winner followed with his next tally and it helped his team to a win over Columbus on January 17, 2001.

  Regarded as one of the team’s best pieces of trade bait during the expansion year, O’Donnell was traded off to the New Jersey Devils on March 4 and helped his new team to an appearance in the Stanley Cup Final. His last NHL action came with Chicago during the 2011–12 season.

  Manny Fernandez

  The Wild did not need to give up a lot to get their hands on Fernandez. He had finally seen regular work with the Dallas Stars the year before as a backup to Ed Belfour, but the emergence of Marty Turco made him expendable. He became the franchise goaltender in the team’s early years and was a hit with fans in Minnesota from the start.

  After losing to Phoenix in Minnesota’s second game of the year, Fernandez was given the honour of being the starter in their home opener against Philadelphia and made 36 saves in the 3–3 tie. Soon after, he missed three games because of an ankle injury, but the wins started piling up after his return to action. He had a three-game winning streak in November and earned a victory in five straight appearances over December and January. Over the course of the 2000–01 campaign, he racked up four shutouts and he ranked among the top 10 goaltenders in goals-against average and save percentage at the end of the year.