Coming off the franchise’s first ever playoff birth, the upcoming season may be the most highly anticipated Columbus Blue Jackets season since the inaugural season back in 2000. Here is everything you need to know about opening night.
The Blue Jackets are 3-3-1-1 all time on opening night, and 2-1-1-1 at home. This is the first time that the Blue Jackets have opened their season with the Wild, a team that entered the league the same year as Columbus.
The Jackets have opened with the Blackhawks twice, in 2000 and 2002, but have never opened with any other team more than once. The other teams the Jackets have seen on opening night are St. Louis, Atlanta, Washington, Vancouver, Anaheim, and Dallas.
Three times have the Blue Jackets opened the season with an overtime game. The first, a tie against St. Louis in ’01, then an overtime loss at Vancouver in ’06 and a victory over Dallas a year ago.
The Jackets have scored 22 goals on opening night in their nine-year history. The team leader for goals on opening night is Rick Nash with three. David Vyborny and Dan Fritsche each have two. Fritsche’s pair came in the same game, a loss against Washington back in 2005.
The quickest goal scored by a Blue Jacket on opening night was scored just 31 seconds into the first period by Geoff Sanderson in a 3-3 tie to St. Louis in 2001.
The Jackets first all time goal was scored by Bruce Gardiner in the team’s first opening night game in 2000.
The goaltender with the most opening night wins for the Blue Jackets is Pascal LeClaire, with victories in 2007 and 2008. And if you care, Blue Jacket goaltenders have allowed 21 total goals.
The all-time Nationwide Arena opening night attendance is 90,396, including four sellouts.
Opening night is Oct. 3. Come support your team, and help them add another victory to the all-time total.
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