The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Columbus Blue Jackets should play each other more often. It’s never not boring when they meet on the ice. A showcase of two of the top offenses in the league ended in a 6-2 win for the Lightning that was a little closer than the final score.
It’s late at night so lets bullet point this recap.
- Jonas Johansson returned to action from a lower-body injury and did what he needed to do to pick up the victory. He stopped 31-of-33 shots while posting a 1.92 GSAx. The first goal he allowed was one he’d probably like back as Zach Werenski snapped one over his glove from an angle.
- The Lightning started the game with two goals in 1:37, the quickest any team has scored two goals to start a game this season, and the third fastest brace of goals in team history.
- Through the first two periods, there was a lot of room on the ice for both teams. Columbus was giving the Lightning room through the neutral zone, which is never a good idea, while the Lightning were conceding their blue line repeatedly.
- After a series of games where the Lightning were smashing themselves up against tight defenses and little room to operate it looked like they were playing on Olympic ice against the Blue Jackets. Several times throughout the game they had room in the offensive zone to cycle the puck around.
- That being said, they were also a little looser defensively. Both Columbus goals came off of rushes started by turnovers. We haven’t seen a lot of that lately.
- The Lightning’s top line had their best game since the return from the break. They scored twice, were credited with 11 shots, 8 scoring chances, and 5 high-danger chances. Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel, and Nikita Kucherov haven’t been bad per se, they just hadn’t looked like themselves. They flashed some of their dominance against the Blue Jackets.
- Anthony Cirelli….the man is fighting it right now. For the second night in a row he caught iron on golden chances from in front of the net. At the same time he doesn’t look like he’s 100%. He was a little banged up going into the 4 Nations Face-Off and still seems a tad off. That being said, he had some nice defensive plays and won 60% of his face-offs.Scoring goals isn’t the only way to help the team.
- After stumbling through seven power play opportunities (granted, two were abbreviated) on Monday, they scuffled through a four-minute one on Tuesday (although they did have a goal overturned after an off-side review). They did finally score with the extra skater when Victor Hedman banged on home. They’ve always been streaky with the power play and it seems they’re in one of their funks right now.
- Hedman had three points on the night and now has 50 points on the season. He also passed Rob Blake for sole possession of 20th-place all time in points by a defenseman with 778 (167 goals, 611 assists).
- Elvis Merzlikins was tagged for five goals on the night and he was still one of the better players on the ice, especially in the first two periods. There wasn’t much he could do on the first four goals allowed.
The Goals
Mitchell Chaffee (Emil Lilleberg, Darren Raddysh) 1-0 Lightning
Nikita Kucherov (Jake Guentzel) 2-0 Lightning
Zach Werenski (unassisted) 2-1 Lightning
Jake Guentzel (Victor Hedman, Brayden Point) 3-1 Lightning
Victor Hedman (Nikita Kucherov, Darren Raddysh) 4-1 Lightning
Zach Werenski (Adam Fantilli, Kent Johnson) Short-handed, 4-2 Lightning
Victor Hedman (Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 5-2 Lightning
Jake Guentzel (unassisted) Empty Net, 6-2 Lightning
