Preview: Strike Lightning Twice?

After a grueling week, the Blue Jackets finally got multiple days off. Let’s hope they made the most of the time and are rested and energized for this one. They came up big in the third period with goals from Brandon Saad and Cam Atkinson to clinch a key road win. You’d have to think Tampa will be motivated to respond.

Former Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards will make his return to Nationwide Arena tonight. Expect a video tribute in the first period. I hope he receives a warm welcome from the Fifth Line. I thought his firing was justified but I’m also very appreciative of what he accomplished as head coach here.

Andrei Vasilevskiy will get the start in goal for the Lightning. This is a change from Friday’s lineup. Vasilevskiy has been superior to Ben Bishop, and in fact leads all NHL goaltenders in goals against average (1.50) and save percentage (.951). It will be important to get plenty of shots on goal to get some past him. Can we stop facing these great goalies, please?

Roster News: Columbus traded Cody Goloubef to Colorado for another AHL defenseman, Ryan Stanton. This deal saves some money, as Stanton is on a two-way contract. As far as on-ice impact, this is additional AHL depth and nothing more. If Stanton gets time in Columbus, it will be because of multiple injuries on the blue line.

Projected Lineups

Brandon Saad	Alexander Wennberg	Nick Foligno
Boone Jenner	Brandon Dubinsky	Cam Atkinson
Scott Hartnell	William Karlsson	Josh Anderson
Markus Hannikainen	Lukas Sedlak	Sam Gagner

Zach Werenski	Seth Jones
Jack Johnson	David Savard
Ryan Murray	Markus Nutivaara

Sergei Bobrovsky

Curtis McElhinney

Alex Killorn	Vladislav Namestnikov	Nikita Kucherov
Brayden Point	Tyler Johnson	Ryan Callahan
Ondrej Palat	Valtteri Filppula	Jonathan Drouin
Cedric Paquette	Brian Boyle

Victor Hedman	Andrej Sustr
Nikita Nesterov	Braydon Coburn
Jason Garrison	Slater Koekkoek/Luke Witkowski

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Ben Bishop