For the first years of the Columbus Blue Jackets franchise, the team had spirited matchups with the Nashville Predators. These games involved fights, blowouts, and Columbus generally falling in the end. In the first decade of the Blue Jackets’ existence, the Jackets won just 30.4% of their games against the Predators, compiling a 15-35-1 record.
So why were these games considered a rivalry?
Because the Predators were mean, the games were mean, and these teams did not like each other.
Columbus won two games in Nashville during the 2000-01 season, and didn’t win two games in a season in Nashville again until 2013, the final year Columbus was in the Western Conference.