Washington: The Columbus Blue Jackets had their winning run halted at 16 games on Thursday night after they failed to score a single goal and were routed 5-0 by the Washington Capitals.
Braden Holtby stopped 29 shots for his fourth shutout of the season and the Capitals got goals from five different players as Columbus fell short of trying to match the NHL record of 17 straight victories, set in 1993 by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“That was one hell of a run by a hockey team. They should feel really good about it,” head coach John Tortorella said.
The Blue Jackets’ success this season is surprising because they finished last in the Metropolitan Division last season and then Tortorella proved to be a bust as the US coach in September at the World Cup of Hockey. The Americans failed to win a game, finishing seventh out of eight teams and many thought Tortorella might be finished as an NHL coach.
But one month after the World Cup debacle, the Blue Jackets decided to take a chance on Tortorella, who was suspended by the NHL for 15 games in 2014 after attempting to confront another coach outside the dressing rooms.
The Blue Jackets improved to 27-6-4 on the season and hadn’t lost since November 26, when the Florida Panthers beat them in a shootout.
“Quite honestly I thought the first 30 minutes we were a good hockey club,” Tortorella said. “We played well. We couldn’t find a way on Holtby, he made some great saves at key times, and then we kind of lost ourselves.”
Washington took a 1-0 lead just over five minutes in and never looked back, getting a goal and an assist apiece from defencemen John Carlson and Nate Schmidt. Daniel Winnik, Andre Burakovsky and Justin Williams also scored goals.
“I wanted to stop the streak,” Williams said. “Who wouldn’t want to stop a streak? I’m lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about it.”
