Blue Jackets at Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s playoff run ended after being shut out in back-to-back games last season and their offense has picked up where it left off as they prepare to host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night. The Lightning managed one goal in each of the first two contests and gave up four in the third period of a 4-1 loss to Vancouver on Thursday after holding a big advantage in shots midway through the game.
“We’ve got to finish,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said of his team, which led the league in scoring last season. “We’re not finishing. We’re shooting some pucks at the net, but we’re not going there with a desire to score. That’s what you have to do in this league, especially with the goaltending the way it is. … You’ve got to go in there and get the dirty ones.” While the Lightning have struggled to find the net, the Blue Jackets scored five goals in each of the last two contests and won three of four to start the campaign despite the absence of All-Star defenseman Seth Jones (knee). Columbus rebounded from an ugly second period in which it was outshot 22-5 and gave up three goals to score twice in the final 20 minutes to spoil Florida’s home opener with a 5-4 triumph Thursday. “We gathered ourselves and had an opportunity to win the hockey game,” Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson told reporters. “We got it done. We’re taking steps in the right direction.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Ohio (Columbus), FS Sun (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (3-1-0): Artemi Panarin registered a goal and three assists Thursday and leads the team with seven points while Atkinson, who tops Columbus with 18 shots, doubled his season total with two points. Free-agent signing Anthony Duclair has made a positive impression in the first four games with his new team while recording a power-play goal and two assists, along with a plus-3 rating. Sergei Bobrovsky (2.53 goals-against average, .919 save percentage) is expected to get the start after coach John Tortorella told reporters backup Joonas Korpisalo was the team’s “best player” Thursday despite allowing four goals.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (1-1-0): Tampa Bay’s penalty kill, which struggled to 28th in the league last season, is 9-for-9 in the early going while the power play (third in 2017-18, 23.9 percent) has been toothless at 0-for-8. “The power play was probably the worst I’ve seen in a long time,” captain Steven Stamkos said after going 0-for-5 in Thursday’s loss. “. … It cost us the game. The PK has been outstanding to start the year and the PP has been the total opposite. We got a lot of chances tonight and it’s just not good enough in this league to not score.” The “Triplets” line of Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat skated together Friday and could be reunited Saturday.
OVERTIME
1. The Lightning swept three games in the 2017-18 and 2015-16 season series while the Blue Jackets won all three in 2016-17.
2. Tampa Bay G Andrei Vasilevskiy, who shared the league lead with 44 wins last season, has turned aside 66 of 69 shots in the first two games.
3. Columbus F Alexander Wennberg has managed one shot in the first four games, but recorded two assists and a plus-1 rating.