Game Preview: Blue Jackets Aim To Shake Off Saturday Shellacking In Tuesday Tango with Tampa

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

21–8–5 (47 points; .691%) ROSTER / SCHEDULE

7:00 P.M. – TUESDAY, JANUARY 4 NATIONWIDE ARENA COLUMBUS, OH

BALLY SPORTS OHIO ESPN+ (Out of Market)

The Columbus Blue Jackets started the new year off with a bang.

But after taking a 4-0 lead against the Carolina Hurricanes in Saturday's game, the Blue Jackets bang turned into a self-inflicted wound. Carolina scored seven unanswered goals in just 32 minutes, turning a 4-0 deficit into an eventual 7-4 victory over Columbus.

With two off days to let it sink in, the Blue Jackets are back on home ice Tuesday night when they face another Cup-contender as Victor Hedman and the Tampa Bay Lightning make their first visit of the season to Nationwide Arena.

RE: TAMPA BAY

This is rare to say in recent seasons, but the Lightning are struggling. They've lost three consecutive games, allowing 17 goals in those three games — including a 9-3 loss to the Florida Panthers last week. Two of those games without goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy between the pipes as a result of COVID-19 protocols, but the former Vezina winner looked shaky in his return Sunday, allowing four goals on just 21 shots in the Lightning's 4-0 loss to the New York Rangers. It was his second-worst performance of the season; the worst was in a wild 7-6 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in Tampa Bay's second game of the season.

The salary cap (finally) caught up with the Lightning a bit during the offseason, and the team said goodbye to important players such as Yanni Gourde, Blake Coleman, Tyler Johnson, and Barclay Goodrow. After three seasons of finishing with the league-lead in goals and an 8th place finish last season, the Lightning rank a very average 13th in goals scored per game this season, at 3.15. (That's just behind Columbus, who sits at 3.20.) 

Tampa Bay is also missing 2019 league MP Nikita Kucherov. Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said that Kucherov's return is close and that he's travelling and practicing with the team following an October shoulder surgery, but also stressed that Kucherov will not make his return Tuesday. Defenseman Zach Bogosian will also be out, per Cooper. 

The big boppers are still there for the Lightning, though. Steven Stamkos has 16-23-39 this season, his 16 goals leading the team by a wide margin. Ondrej Palat and Brayden Point both have ten goals on the season, the only other two Lightning with double-digit goals. Hedmen, the defensive leader of the team, has 27 assists and ranks second on the club with 34 points.

Tampa's special teams' unit has also been unusually pedestrian for them. They've allowed nine power play goals on their last 26 kills, and they're tied with the Blue Jackets for 20th in the league on the penalty kill. The power play is no better, where the Lightning's 18.1% conversion rate is also tied for 20th. 

STORYLINES

• COVID + INJURY UPDATES
  Some good news to start here, as Oliver Bjorkstrand was back at practice Monday after clearing COVID-19 protocols. He's expected to play Tuesday. Gavin Bayreuther, who was placed into protocols last week, has not cleared yet. Zach Werenski tested positive and was not at practice Monday, but he has not officially been placed in the protocol as of early Tuesday morning. Results of a retest will be known Tuesday, at which point a final determination will be made. If he is placed in protocols, he will miss Tuesday's game with Tampa, as well as the home-and-home with the New Jersey Devils that begins Thursday in Newark, New Jersey and ends at Nationwide Saturday. 
  
  On the injury front, Elvis Merzlikins and Daniil Tarasov were both absent from practice Monday. Tarasov left Saturday's loss with a lower-body injury, and Merzlikins has "discomfort", per head coach Brad Larsen. Joonas Korpisalo seems likely to get his first action since coming in for Merzlikins in a December 16th loss to the Oilers, and his first start since November 30th against Nashville, a game in which Merzlikins replaced him. If Korpisalo gets the start, it will be just his third home start of the season. He gave up nine goals in the first two starts, both of which were losses.
   
• FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STAY COMPOSED
  They did it again Saturday. For the sixth time in just eight games, the Columbus Blue Jackets allowed two goals less than one minute apart — and it's actually worse than that. In those six games, the distance between two goals have been :35, :24, :07, :22, :46, and finally, :16 in Saturday's implosion. It's okay to give up goals, but the pattern here is disturbing. Columbus absolutely has to focus on not allowing goals in bunches. Some of these have just been bad luck, but other times, it seems as if they're trying too hard to answer with a goal of their own. That leads to turnovers, which leads to goals, and the cycle repeats itself. 
   
• FORGET ABOUT THE SECOND HALF OF SATURDAY
  With that out of the way, the Blue Jackets just need to forget that it happened. There's nothing to be gained from dwelling on it.  They blew it. They know they blew it. There's nothing to analyze. Move on.

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