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Tampa Bay Lightning at Columbus Blue Jackets
Tuesday, January 4, 2022, 7 PM ET
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
TV: Bally Sports Ohio - Radio: 97.1 The Fan
Opponent’s Blog: Raw Charge
Tampa Bay Lightning - 21-8-5, 47 points, 1st Atlantic, 3rd East
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Columbus Blue Jackets - 15-14-1, 31 points, 6th Metropolitan, 11th East
After playing their first ever game on New Year’s Day in franchise history Saturday, in which the team squandered their biggest lead of the season yet, the Columbus Blue Jackets return to home ice against the Tampa Bay Lightning. After a 2-3-1 start, the “Bolts” have returned to full power, going on a 15-3-1 run from November 13 through December 28. Brayden Point returned to the lineup after a long absence on December 28, Andrei Vasilevskiy returned from a Covid bout on Sunday, and Nikita Kucherov has been skating since early December.
On the flip side, the Blue Jackets have been getting the worse side of the injury bug recently, especially in net. Joonas Korpisalo is still in Covid protocol, Daniil Tarasov left Saturday’s game with an injury, and Elvis Merzlikins hasn’t practiced since colliding with Jakub Voracek in the same game. There’s a non-zero chance Cam Johnson and/or Jean-Francois Berube make their CBJ debuts tonight. As if that wasn’t enough, Zach Werenski tested positive yesterday, which means Scott Harrington is back. Huzzah!
Player to Watch - Oliver BJORKSTRAND and Jake Bean
A two-for! The one good bit of injury news for Columbus is that points leader Oliver Bjorkstrand will return to the lineup after his dealing with Omicron. I would say the team needs him, but goals haven’t really been too big an issue for Columbus, scoring an average of 3.6 per game in the past five contests. Goals against has, and with Werenski now out, Jake Bean will need to fill a much bigger role on the defensive end.
The Other Bench
It’s the Tampa Bay Lightning. They’re gonna be good no matter what. - Riley Nash will return to Columbus after being claimed off waivers from Winnipeg. His last game as a Jet? At Nationwide Arena on November 24th, against the Blue Jackets.
Season Series
1/4/2022 - Tampa Bay at Columbus
4/26/2022 - Columbus at Tampa Bay
4/29/2022 - Tampa Bay at Columbus
Stats:
| Tampa Bay | Columbus | |
|---|---|---|
| 3.15 (13) | GPG | 3.20 (11) |
| 2.88 (15) | GAPG | 3.47 (27) |
| 18.1% (19) | PP% | 17.1% (23) |
| 79.0% (T20) | PK% | 79.0% (T20) |
| 51.4% (12) | 5v5 Shot Attempt % | 47.5% (23) |
| 51.7% (10) | 5v5 Unblocked shot attempt % | 46.3% (29) |
| 8.6 (9) | 5v5 Shot % | 9.3% (6) |
| .921 (18) | 5v5 Save % | .911 (26) |
| Steven Stamkos, 16 | G Leader | Captain Boone Jenner, 12 |
| Victor Hedman, 27 | A Leader | Jakub Voracek, 22 |
| Steven Stamkos, 39 | P Leader | Oliver BJORKSTRAND/Jakub Voracek, 23 |
| Pat Maroon, 54 | PIM Leader | Andrew Peeke, 26 |
| 10-5-2 | Home / Road | 10-4-1 |
| 6-3-1 | Last 10 | 3-6-1 |
Projected Lineups:
Columbus Blue Jackets:
| Patrik Laine | Captain Boone Jenner | Jakub Voracek |
| Max Domi | Jack Roslovic | Oliver BJORKSTRAND |
| Gus Nyquist | Sean Kuraly | Alexandre Texier |
| Eric Robinson/Yegor Chinakhov | Cole Sillinger | Emil Bemstrom |
| Andrew Peeke | Jake Bean |
| Vladislav Gavrikov | Adam Boqist |
| Scott Harrington | Gabriel Carlsson |
| Hopefully Elvis Merzlikins? |
| Cam Johnson? |
Tampa Bay Lightning:
| Ondrej Palat | Steven Stamkos | Ross Colton |
| Alex Killorn | Brayden Point | Anthony Cirelli |
| Pat Maroon | Pierre-Edouard Bellemare | Corey Perry |
| Boris Katchouk | Riley Nash | Mathieu Jospeh |
| Victor Hedman | Jan Rutta |
| Ryan McDonagh | Erik Cernak |
| Darren Raddysh | Mikhail Sergachev |
| Andrei Vasilevskiy |
| Brian Elliot |
GameThread will be up at 6:30! Until then, chat about the game here!
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