After Nick Foligno left the ice on April 16, 2019, at Nationwide Arena, the Blue Jackets former captain was swallowed up in a sea of teary-eyed hugs heading back to the dressing room.
They’d just swept the top-seeded Tampa Bay Lightning out of the playoffs in the first round for the first postseason series victory in Blue Jackets history, and emotions ran high among fans, arena employees and team staffers who’d been there since Day 1 of the team’s NHL existence.
“I think about all the years of not getting there or not getting it done, and then finally seeing some of the peoples’ faces who were there as Day 1ers,” Foligno said. “I was hugging security guards who were tearing up, volunteers, ushers … you could just see how much it meant to people that have supported this team from Day 1. Every guy in that (locker) room felt so proud to be a part of that and bring that to this city.”
That remains the only day the Blue Jackets have celebrated a playoff series win, but it’s not their only cherished memory. While they’ve largely been star-crossed for a quarter century, the Jackets have also experienced some thrilling highs.
Here are five indelible moments in Blue Jackets history:
Pulling into his driveway after sweeping the Lightning, Foligno popped the button on his garage door opener.
What happened next left a smile on his face that lasted a while. Neighbors had propped a bunch of brooms against his garage door, and they all tumbled to the ground at once when the door went up.
“That is something I’ll always remember,” Foligno said, “just how much this community rallied around our team at that time. I’ll never forget it.”
Neither will Blue Jackets fans.
As Artemi Panarin, Alexandre Texier and Matt Duchene each sent pucks into Tampa Bay’s empty net late in Game 4, tears began welling for many in the sold-out crowd of 19,328. They’d waited 19 years to see the Blue Jackets advance past the first round of the playoffs. It remains the franchise’s zenith.
It was also a glimpse at what Columbus might look and sound like if the Blue Jackets ever won it all.
“The biggest thing I take away from (the 2019 sweep) was the satisfaction for the city to see us finally win a round and move on, and have everyone experience the pressure of the second round … and hopefully the third round and Stanley Cup Final someday,” said Foligno, who’s now the Chicago Blackhawks’ captain. “That’s what I crave for this city, because they deserve it.”
Nick Foligno scores Columbus Blue Jackets’ first home playoff winner
Prior to the Blue Jackets’ stirring sweep, their biggest moments happened in games that went to overtime. One of the most memorable was Foligno’s overtime goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 23, 2014, in front of 18,970 at Nationwide Arena.
Scooping the puck in the neutral zone, the Blue Jackets’ then-captain carried it over the blue line and sailed a wrist shot from above the circles that beat goalie Marc-Andre Fleury just 2:49 into OT. It knotted the series 2-2 and gave the Blue Jackets their first home victory in a playoff game.
Foligno’s gliding goal celebration on his knees became an indelible moment that still features prominently in video montages celebrating Blue Jackets history.
“Unbelievable feeling,” Foligno said. “The most unbelievable feeling I’ve had in hockey, just the magnitude of it, our fans getting to celebrate at home.”
Matt Calvert gives Columbus Blue Jackets their first playoff win
Two games before Foligno’s OT goal, forward Matt Calvert did something similar in Pittsburgh to give the Blue Jackets their first-ever playoff victory.
Carrying the puck into the Penguins’ zone with linemates Cam Atkinson and Brandon Dubinsky early in the second overtime of Game 2 in Pittsburgh, Calvert beat Fleury at 1:10, pouncing on his own rebound from the net-front.
Teammates mobbed Calvert after he helped the Blue Jackets pull even at 1-1 in the series. Calvert had a knack for scoring big OT goals with the Blue Jackets, adding another one in 2018 against the Washington Capitals, but his heroics in Pittsburgh remain etched in the minds of many Blue Jackets fans.
“I shot it off his pad the first time, and he put it back to me, so I shoved it high,” Calvert told the Dispatch for a story published April 10, 2017. “That’s the moment that freezes in time for me.”
Rick Nash clinches Columbus Blue Jackets’ first playoff appearance
It took eight years for the Blue Jackets to clinch their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
That was one year too late for original majority owner John H. McConnell to see it in person, but Rick Nash’s skyward point after his late tying goal April 8, 2009, in Chicago was a nod to “Mr. Mac,” who died at age 84 on April 25, 2008.
Fedor Tyutin scored the lone goal of a shootout that followed overtime to give the Blue Jackets a 4-3 shootout win, but the point earned on Nash’s goal to force OT was all they needed. It was a culmination for Nash, who was close to McConnell after being drafted first overall in 2002.
The result was the only postseason Nash got in nine seasons with the Blue Jackets.
Rick Nash scores jaw-dropping goal for Columbus Blue Jackets in Arizona
Nash’s solo effort on Jan. 17, 2008, in Glendale, Arizona, was an instant classic. To this day, 17 years later, it remains a highlight. It might be one of the greatest NHL goals ever scored, period.
After getting a stretch pass in the neutral zone, Nash kicked it into high gear while stickhandling through and around two Arizona Coyotes on his way to the net. As if that wasn’t enough, he also slid the puck under goalie Mikael Tellqvist’s poke check in the crease before tucking it between the left post and the goalie’s skate.
Waking up the following morning, Nash fielded a call from Blue Jackets spokesman Todd Sharrock informing him that several national TV and radio shows wanted to speak with him.
That’s when he started to realize how special it might be.
“I had no idea it was going to be that big,” Nash said, “and that’s where it kind of felt like the goal was bigger than the actual hockey game.”
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social