Columbus Blue Jackets Travel to Tampa Bay for a Storm
By William Espy
The Columbus Blue Jackets get a taste of what it may be like in the post-season, as they face an elite team tonight.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are set to visit the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are undoubtedly the best team in the NHL at the moment. Tampa Bay has a league high record of 32-8-2 while the Jackets only have a record of 24-14-3.
The Lightning are a team stacked with talent in every position, whether it be with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov up front, Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh on defense or Andrei Vasilevskiy in net, they are dangerous everywhere.
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Nikita Kucherov leads the NHL in points with 69 and assists with 49 through 42 games to this point.
The Blue Jackets first game in Florida this month went well, with Seth Jones ending overtime almost instantly in order to get a win over the Florida Panthers.
The last game for Tampa Bay went fairly roughly as they fell to the San Jose Sharks, giving up five goals in the loss. This could be bad news for the Jackets, as a team with the quality of the Lightning is difficult enough normally; however when they’re angry it may make them even more difficult.
Both teams are 1-1-0 in 2019, which doesn’t mean much considering the small sample size. If the Jackets want to be a true contending team going forward, beating the Lightning and gaining the confidence that comes with it could have astronomical effects.
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Of course, beating Tampa Bay is much easier said than done so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Jackets walk out with 0 points either. They’re going to have to play a full sixty minutes and avoid making the mistakes that have become commonplace if they want to walk out with a full two points from this game tonight.