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Tampa Bay Lightning at Columbus Blue Jackets

Thu Nov 127:00 PM ETESPN+Columbus, OH
By JR·3 min read
Lightning(11-4-2)
Blue Jackets(7-9-0)
Thursday 11/127:00 PM

TLDR: Tampa Bay just lost its top center for an unknown stretch, and its trip into Columbus is the second half of a road back-to-back. The Blue Jackets have had a day to stew over another home loss to Florida, which makes Thursday more interesting than it looks on paper.

FRI 11/13, 7:00 PMESPN+
Lightning
(11-4-2)
LWWWL
Blue Jackets
(7-9-0)
LLWWL

Tampa Bay comes into Columbus on the second night of a road back-to-back, after a stop in Buffalo, and without Brayden Point, who went on injured reserve with no timeline. Columbus is rested but coming off a flat 4-1 home loss to a short-handed Florida team. The game likely turns on whether Tampa's scoring holds up on tired legs and without its top center.

Tampa Bay Lightning
  • 3+ goals in each of last 5 games
  • 3 straight wins over DET, CHI, MIN before Winnipeg
  • Both recent losses were 1-goal games
  • Brayden Point on IR, no timeline
  • Second night of a back-to-back after Buffalo
  • Lost the back half of the last back-to-back in Winnipeg
Columbus Blue Jackets
  • Full day of rest before Thursday
  • Provorov and Fabbro back, deeper blue line
  • Lundestrom skating, nearing return from Achilles
  • Managed 1 goal at home vs short-handed Florida
  • Garland out, upper body, no timeline
  • Monahan, Voronkov nicked up from the Buffalo game

Start with the hole in the Lightning lineup. Tampa Bay put Brayden Point on injured reserve after he left the 4-3 loss in Winnipeg, and Jon Cooper said he hopes it's "not too serious" but expects Point to miss time. The team has no timeline. Point had 5 goals and 16 points in 17 games, so this is the engine of the 11-4-2 start, not a depth piece. Tampa called up prospect Sam O'Reilly from Syracuse, and he could make his NHL debut during this stretch.

First, Tampa has a game in Buffalo on Wednesday, its first full night without Point. That result will tell us what this game is really about: whether the Lightning have found a center alignment that works, how Cooper splits the goaltending across 2 nights, and how heavy the legs are when they get to Nationwide Arena. Columbus plays nobody in between. The Blue Jackets will have had a full day off after Florida, and the Lightning will have played the night before. That gap is real.

No board is posted yet, which fits. Neither side is settled until Tampa gets through Buffalo, so the honest read for now is the schedule and the medical report. Puck drop is 7:00 PM ET in Columbus.

Tampa Bay Lightning
(11-4-2)
11/08L@Jets3-4
11/08W@Wild4-3
11/06WvsBlackhawks4-1
11/04WvsRed Wings4-2
10/31L@Predators4-5
Columbus Blue Jackets
(7-9-0)
11/11LvsPanthers1-4
11/07L@Sabres2-5
11/06WvsStars2-1
11/04WvsAvalanche7-2
11/01L@Stars1-3

Points aside, the Tampa offense has not been the problem. As of Wednesday morning they had scored at least 3 goals in each of their last 5 games, including 4 in each of the 3 straight wins over Detroit, Chicago and Minnesota. The 2 losses came by 1 goal each, 5-4 in Nashville and 4-3 in Winnipeg. That Winnipeg game was the back half of a back-to-back, which is exactly the spot they're walking into again here. The scoring held up on tired legs. Keeping the puck out of the net didn't.

Columbus is still chewing on the loss to Florida. The Panthers came into Nationwide without Aleksander Barkov or Brad Marchand, on the last night of a road trip, and still won 4-1. Sam Bennett scored twice and Sam Reinhart added an empty-netter. It was the 2nd time this season Florida has beaten the Blue Jackets in their own building. After a scoreless first period, a rested home team managed 1 goal against a short-handed opponent. That should sting.

Rick Bowness has his own medical sheet to manage. Coming out of the Buffalo game, Sean Monahan was dealing with a knee injury from a blocked shot and Dmitri Voronkov took a big hit, though both were expected back quickly. Denton Mateychuk's eye injury from practice looked minor. Conor Garland is out with an upper-body injury and no return timeline, and Isac Lundestrom is skating lightly as he works back from Achilles surgery. The good news is that Ivan Provorov and Dante Fabbro are back on the blue line. That's a deeper defense than Columbus had in the preseason, and it gets a Tampa forward group that's suddenly a center short.

So the matchup comes down to this: a Lightning team that's been scoring in bunches, playing its second game in 2 nights and its first stretch without Point, against a rested Columbus team that needs to show more than 1 goal on home ice. Check back after Buffalo. That game will fill in most of what's still blank here.

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