Listen, we know the Blue Jackets have issues.
Most of them are in the scoring department.
While every game in this first round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning has been airtight, Columbus finds itself on the wrong end of a 3-1 deficit heading into today's Game 5. Without a win, the Blue Jackets are heading home from the Bubble Life of downtown Toronto and the damage would be largely self-inflicted.
They've had chances. They just haven't scored enough goals.
Let's go back to Game 3. Early on they're gifted a 1:26 5-on-3 advantage which, for many teams, is like sensing blood in the water. Aside from a goal post from Emil Bemstrom, the Blue Jackets tossed that grade-A opportunity away. They were in it, but (obviously) not for long enough. And if you ask this team to score four or five times to win, you're probably asking too much.
If this season is going to continue, the Blue Jackets will again to have to win a 2-1 or 3-2 game – and they've shown us they can do it.
John Tortorella, in a roughly 40-second press conference on Tuesday, acknowledged that Game 4 was one of his team's better efforts of the series. It's a series that has transpired quite differently than last spring's four-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Watch Torts' (quick) presser below #CBJ | @Levis4Floors pic.twitter.com/H52iUNYS9w
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) August 18, 2020
Sure, there were some tense moments last year but the Blue Jackets got it figured out quickly. They were in control of Game 2, Game 3, and weathered periods of turmoil in Game 4 to put it away. They're in the midst of another battle this time around with a Lightning team that has come ready to defend.
How crazy tight has the Blue JacketsLightning series been? From the NHL:
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) August 18, 2020
Overall, the First Round series between the Lightning and Blue Jackets has been tied or within one goal for 317:31 of 330:27 total game time (96.1%).#CBJ
If Columbus is going to live to fight another day, it's got to be exactly how it got to this point. Maybe with a few more goals, though.
Through four games of last year's series, the Blue Jackets had scored 19 goals to knock out the Lightning, fresh off a 62-win regular season. This time around, they have eight goals and that's consisted of two fourth-line goals in Game 3 (Riley Nash, Eric Robinson) and another miserable run on the power play.
Tortorella thinks the Blue Jackets played one of their better games on Monday. He may be right, but the Lightning have also come ready to play Columbus' game. If the Blue Jackets can play their best game of the series this afternoon, they've got a chance. If not, they'll likely be headed home.
