2017 NHL Playoffs

Lore & Background

By the 2016-17 campaign, the Blue Jackets were in the middle of what fans came to call the Tortorella rebuild. The coach, hired in 2015 after a distinguished run with the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers, brought a physical, structured identity to Nationwide Arena. The 2014 playoffs—where Columbus had shocked the league by pushing the Pittsburgh Penguins to six games in the first round—remained the high-water mark that every subsequent spring was measured against.

The 2017 season carried the weight of that memory. The roster featured a mix of veterans and younger pieces, and the team surged to a 16-game winning streak during the regular year, clinching a wildcard berth with authority. The first-round matchup against the Penguins—the eventual Stanley Cup champions—saw Columbus battle hard but fall in five games. The spring of 2017 brought the familiar ache of an early exit, but also the pride of a team that had proven it belonged.

For the club's identity, this period mattered because it cemented the narrative that the Blue Jackets were a team capable of competing with the league's elite—close enough to feel the heat, and hungry to sustain a deeper run. It shaped the fan culture around patience, loyalty, and the belief that the next year would be the one.

In Their Own Story

The last home game of the regular season ended at 7:14 p.m. on a Tuesday in April. The arena lights dimmed to their low amber glow, and the Zamboni cut slow arcs across the ice, shavings piling up in white drifts along the boards. A single puck sat in the center circle, untouched. In the upper deck, a few stragglers still wore their blue-and-gold jerseys, watching the ice dry under the floodlights. No confetti. No horn. Just the hum of the arena's ventilation system and the faint echo of a crowd that had been louder, more hopeful, just two years before. A season-ticket holder in row 14 peeled off her jacket, draped it over the back of the seat, and walked out into the April night without looking back at the empty rink.

Reader's Guide

Era: The Tortorella Transition (2015–2018)

The 2017 season sits in the middle of what Blue Jackets fans call the "building years." After the electric 2014 playoff run, the club entered a period of roster turnover and identity-shaping under John Tortorella. The 2017 campaign, in which the Jackets narrowly missed the postseason, defined this era: a team with the structure and physicality to compete but lacking the sustained depth to close out a 82-game season.

What defined this chapter was the tension between potential and consistency. Fans remembered the 2014 second-round win over Pittsburgh as proof the ceiling was high, while the 2017 near-miss reminded them the floor was still being built. The Metropolitan Division's strength—Pittsburgh, Washington, New Jersey—made every point feel contested.

Why it matters: This period forged the modern Blue Jackets fan identity. The loyalty that carried the team through years of missing the playoffs, the patience demanded by a rebuild, and the fierce pride in a physical, blue-collar style of play all crystallized in these mid-2010s seasons. The 2017 spring, in particular, became a touchstone: the year the fanbase learned to grieve a playoff miss and immediately turn toward the next one.

Did You Know?

• The 2017 first-round exit came just three years after Columbus's memorable 2014 first-round battle with the Pittsburgh Penguins, one of the most intense playoff series in franchise history.
• John Tortorella, hired in 2015, had previously coached the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers, but never the Pittsburgh Penguins. Mike Sullivan coached the Penguins to the 2016 Stanley Cup.
• Nationwide Arena, home of the Blue Jackets since 2000, hosted its 2017 regular-season home games under the same blue-and-gold color scheme that has defined the franchise since its 2000 debut.
• The Metropolitan Division, where the Blue Jackets are slotted, consistently produced some of the NHL's most physical and closely contested regular-season matchups during this period.