The Blue Jackets are storming into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, playing perhaps their best hockey of the season right now.
That's the good news.
The bad news is they will face the Tampa Bay Lightning, death, destroyer of worlds, in the first round with Game 1 likely to take place Wednesday at Tampa's Amalie Arena.
| Game | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|
| ONE | AMALIE ARENA | Weds, 4/10 |
| TWO | AMALIE ARENA | Fri, 4/12 |
| THREE | NATIONWIDE ARENA | Sun, 4/14 |
| FOUR | NATIONWIDE ARENA | Tues, 4/16 |
| FIVE | AMALIE ARENA | Thurs, 4/18 |
| SIX | NATIONWIDE ARENA | Sun, 4/21 |
| SEVEN | AMALIE ARENA | Tues, 4/23 |
Just how good are the Lightning? Let's count the ways.
- Tampa Bay won 62 games in the regular season, tied for the most in NHL history.
- The Lightning racked up 128 points along the way, fourth-most in league history. Of the three teams ahead of the Bolts on the all-time points list, two went on to win the Stanley Cup.
- Tampa Bay had three winning streaks of at least seven games during the season with the longest a 10-game streak in February.
- The Bolts lost back-to-back games just twice and only 14 NHL teams were even able to hand them a single loss. Nashville somehow managed to win two against them.
- Tampa Bay was so good this year that they'll become the first NHL team since 1977 to finish with more wins than any team in the NBA.
- The lightning finished the regular season with a ridiculous +103 goal differential. The Calgary Flames (+62) were the only other team in the league to surpass a 50 goal differential (the Blue Jackets finished +26).
- Tampa's Nikita Kucherov led the league in scoring with 128 topping the 127 points Alexander Mogilny recorded in 1992-93 for the most points ever scored by a Russian born player in the NHL. Kuch's 87 assists are the most ever recorded by a wing.
- Centers Steven Stamkos (45-53-98) and Brayden Point (41-51-92) joined Kucherov in the top 12 of the scoring race, making the Lightning the first team with three 40-goal scorers since the Pittsburgh Penguins did it in 1995-96. The Bolts are also the first team with three 90-point scorers since the 2005-06 season.
- Tampa Bay finished with the league's top power play (28.2%) and tied with the Blue Jackets for the league's top penalty kill (85.0%). They're the first team in NHL history to finish higher than 25% on the PP and 85% on the PK.
- Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, likely to bag the Vezina this season as the league's best netminder, led the NHL with 39 wins to go along with a .925 SV% and 2.40 GAA. His backup, Louis Domingue, went 21–5. Both goalies had 10-game win streaks during the campaign.
- Last but not least, the Lightning went 3–0 against the Blue Jackets, outscoring Columbus 17-3 in those games.
Yeah, they're lethal.
Five Keys for the Blue Jackets
Money Puck's playoff odds model gives the Blue Jackets a 36% chance of getting out of the first round. That's higher than many other teams in the league would get in this matchup and that's a reflection of how talented, fast and dangerous the Jackets can be.
Here's what Columbus needs to do to have a chance in this series.
1. Steal One of the First Two on the Road
Getting just one win in Tampa's building to start the series will do wonders for the Jackets' confidence, knowing they have the firepower to hang with this team. We'd say it may even put some pressure on Tampa bay, but they lost Game 1 of their first round series to Boston last season before taking the next four to close out the Bruins (the “Gentleman's Sweep”). If the Blue Jackets return home down 0–2, that's likely trouble.
2. Sergei Bobrovsky Has to Shine
Bobrovsky's playoff struggles are well documented: in his 17 playoff starts for the Blue Jackets, Bob is 5–12 and has given up at least three goals in all but one of those outings. The two-time Vezina winner will need to have the series of his life.
3. Avoid Penalties and Breakaways
Tampa's league-leading power play is almost a cheat code. With three snipers on their top unit, they can make even the best penalty kills pay. In the teams' three meetings in the regular season, the Bolts went 6-11 (54.5%) on the power play against the Jackets. So, yeah, avoid giving them man advantages.
Ditto for breakaways. In the last meeting between the two, Kucherov bagged two breakaway goals in the game's first 15 minutes to silence Nationwide Arena and end what had been a really good start to the game from the Jackets.
4. Keep Momentum
Columbus clawed their way into the postseason, winning six of their final regular season games to earn a wild card. In those six wins, the Blue Jackets outscored their opponents 30-6. They're playing as well as any team in the league right now, and need to carry that over into this series.
5. Get Secondary Scoring
Oliver Bjorkstrand has 10 points in his last eight games. Rookie phenom Alexandre Texier potted one in just his second NHL game Saturday night in Ottawa. It's imperative for guys beyond the Blue Jackets' top two lines to contribute. Depth is one of the things that makes the Lightning so dangerous and if Columbus can match them with four lines playing well, that's great news.
It won't be easy. Not many people outside of Columbus are giving the Blue Jackets much of a chance in this one, but stranger things have happened in the NHL postseason.
