The Tampa Bay Lightning begin a stretch of five home games in six matches to finish December when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night. This will be the second meeting between the Eastern Conference teams.
On November 21, Columbus trailed 3-0 at home against Tampa Bay in the first 11:52 of the game. However, they made a comeback and won 7-6 in overtime, with Zach Werenski scoring the game-winning goal.
Tampa Bay returns from a successful 3-1-0 road trip, where they defeated Vancouver, Calgary, and Seattle, but lost 2-1 to Edmonton.
The Lightning arrived in Vancouver healthy for the first time this season, but the trip led to several injuries. Anthony Cirelli (12 goals, 15 assists) was injured after a hard hit in the game against the Canucks and missed part of that game.
He and defenseman Erik Cernak were scratched for the Oilers game due to injuries, and Victor Hedman (four goals, 21 assists) was also out for the final two games of the trip.
To make matters worse, J.J. Moser was placed on injured reserve after the Flames game and will be out until at least December 22, when the team faces the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
“We defended,” Coach Jon Cooper said after the team’s 5-1 win in Seattle. “We can score enough, but you have to defend. … We made them go through all five of us all the time.”
Jake Guentzel scored in his sixth straight game, tying Cirelli for the longest streak on the team this season.
Nikita Kucherov has recorded 17 points (three goals, 14 assists) during his seven-game point streak, and Brayden Point extended his point streak to five games with four goals and 11 assists.
The Blue Jackets, after losing 4-3 in overtime to the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday, couldn’t manage to beat Carolina’s new goalie, Dustin Tokarski, in a 4-1 loss on Sunday. Columbus only got Dmitri Voronkov’s eighth goal, lost on special teams, and struggled to generate offense.
The two losses were tough for the Jackets, especially with their third game in four nights coming up against a Tampa Bay team that scored 18 goals and allowed only 8 during their road trip.
Columbus went 0-for-5 on the power play and allowed their second short-handed goal of the season when Carolina’s Sebastian Aho scored the first goal while shorthanded.
The Jackets’ defenseman Jack Johnson was sidelined for the game after taking a high-sticking penalty to the eye area.
“Obviously, we played (Saturday), but we had some jump, we had some life,” said coach Dean Evason, whose team is 1-5-2 in its last eight games. “I think a couple of breaks go our way earlier, I think it could have been a different game.”
Evason made changes to the lines, moving Adam Fantilli up to the second line to play with Voronkov and Kirill Marchenko, who assisted on Voronkov’s goal. Cole Sillinger moved down to center the third line with Zach Aston-Reese and Mathieu Olivier.
Marchenko leads the team with 11 goals and 18 assists in 31 games.
Werenski leads the team with 31 points (10 goals, 21 assists) and has 22 points in his last 18 games. He is also the first NHL defenseman with double-digit goals.
