It hasn’t been the start to the season that either Columbus or Tampa Bay envisioned. Both are stuck on one win, a matter they will each aim to rectify when the Blue Jackets host the Lightning on Saturday.
Columbus is 1-3-0, with its lone victory coming on the road, 7-4 over the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 11. Offense has been otherwise hard to come by for the Blue Jackets, who have produced a total of four goals in their other three games.
“That’s not how we play,” coach Dean Evason said after Columbus took a 4-1 home loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday. “We were passive tonight. We were soft. We’ve got to play hard. If we’re going to win hockey games, we’ve got to play hard, and we didn’t play hard enough tonight to win.”
Columbus’ power play has struggled mightily, scoring once on 11 opportunities, a 9.1% success rate that ranks 31st out of 32 NHL teams.
The Blue Jackets’ penalty kill has been even worse, last in the league at 53.3%. Columbus has given up seven goals when short-handed and had allowed at least one in every game until the loss to Colorado. Even when the Blue Jackets defeated Minnesota, the Wild scored all four of their goals on the power play.
“Clearly, our penalty kill has to be better as far as keeping it out of the net,” Evason said. “There are some circumstances we’ve gone over with our PK, some situational stuff. It’s not a tactical thing. We’ve made some mistakes and it’s ended up in our net because of it. Bottom line, both special teams have to get better.”
The Lightning, meanwhile, arrive in Columbus fresh off their second straight road overtime loss, 2-1 to the Detroit Red Wings on Friday. They dropped a 3-2 decision to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday.
“I just felt good about our game well into the second period and the third period, we played with a lot of moxie,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said after the defeat at Detroit. “… We most definitely deserved a point out of the game. It’s too bad we didn’t get two, but that’s overtime.”
After posting 11 shots on goal in the first two periods against the Red Wings, the Lightning nearly doubled that total in the third period alone, with 19. Tampa Bay got the tying goal from J.J. Moser with less than four minutes to go.
“We got shots through and created chaos in there, so that was a good sign,” Lightning captain Victor Hedman said. “A lot more like we want to play.”
Tampa Bay, which will close out a four-game road trip on Saturday, is 1-2-2 through its first five games. The Lightning picked up their only win at the start of the trip, 4-3 over the Boston Bruins on Monday. All but one of their games have been decided by one goal.
The Lightning could be without superstar winger Nikita Kucherov for a second straight game after he sat out Friday because of illness. In four games this season, the reigning Art Ross Trophy winner as the league’s top point-scorer has three points (two goals, one assist).
