Riding a four-game winning streak, the Columbus Blue Jackets face one of the toughest tests of the young season tonight, the 5-1-1 Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are coming home to Nationwide Arena after a 5-2 beatdown of the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the Jackets still didn’t score a power play goal for the fifth game in a row. They may need to get it going tonight to get the victory.
Related Story: Jackets Miss Power Play Opportunity
The Tampa Bay Lightning are a much better team with more firepower than the Jets. With the return of Steven Stamkos (and his 12 points), the Lightning are on just as hot of a start as the Blue Jackets. The seven-game goal scoring streak of Nikita Kucherov doesn’t hurt either.
However, they lost their last game to the New Jersey Devils in a shootout, and this will be Tampa’s third game in four nights.
Game Information
- Game: Tampa Bay Lightning (5-1-1) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (5-1-0)
- Time: 7 p.m. ET
- Location: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
- TV: FOX Sports Ohio, FOX Sports Sun, FOX Sports Go
- Radio: 97.1 FM (Columbus, OH), WFLA 970-AM
Injury Report
Tampa Bay Lightning
- None
After slogging through injuries in bunches last season, the Lightning are pretty healthy thus far in 2017-18.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Carlsson is still out with an upper-body injury with no timetable for return. It has been reported by multiple sources that Jenner skated with the team at practice on Monday. This is a good sign that his return to the lineup may come sooner rather than later.
Projected Lightning Lines
Namestnikov – Stamkos – Kucherov
Palat – Point – Gourde
Killorn – Johnson – Koekkoek
Kunitz – Paquette- Callahan
Hedman -Dotchin
Sergachev – Stralman
Coburn – Girardi
Vasilevskiy
Budaj
Projected Blue Jackets Lines
Panarin – Wennberg – Atkinson
Calvert – Foligno – Bjorkstrand
Milano – Dubinsky – Anderson
Dubois – Sedlak – Dalpe
Werenski – Jones
Johnson – Savard
Murray – Nutivaara
Bobrovsky
Korpisalo
Next: Jackets Win 4th Straight
Tonight’s game will be a big early season test for the Jackets. This could very well be a measuring stick for the rest of the season. Look for the Jackets’ play makers to come out and make a difference tonight.