Lightning blown away by Blue Jackets again

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
November 29, 2016

KA-BOOM! That sound went off repeatedly inside Nationwide Arena on Tuesday, emitting from a cannon that rests in the corner opposite the benches.

Five times that cannon boomed in celebration for each goal scored by the Blue Jackets, which once again ran roughshod over the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-1 victory. The Lightning have lost three consecutive games for the second time this season.

Columbus handled Tampa Bay with relative ease on Friday as well and in the two meetings has outscored Tampa Bay 10-3 and outshot the Lightning 76-55.

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Seeing the Lightning struggle against Columbus for second time in three games against Columbus has sent up some red flags about the manner in which Tampa Bay has lost.

For the second time against the Blue Jackets, Tampa Bay’s defense struggled to deal with the aggressive forecheck instilled by Columbus, which frequently put pressure on the puck in the Lightning zone, forcing turnovers and creating numerous scoring chances.

If not for Andrei Vasilevskiy, the first period deficit would have been worse than one goal as Tampa Bay was under siege from the opening puckdrop holding a 16-6 shot advantage after the opening 20 minutes. The Lightning did not get a shot on goal until the 10:16 mark, that coming on a power play. The first even-strength shot on goal for Tampa Bay did not come until 14:22 (not counting Tyler Johnson’s shot coming three seconds after the power play expired).

It was all downhill after that as the Blue Jackets kept up the pressure, building a 3-0 lead in the second period and holding a 27-13 advantage on the shot clock after 40 minutes of play.

During Tampa Bay’s three game losing streak, the opposition has outscored the Lightning 9-2 combined in the first and second periods.

“It’s our own doing, really,” Lightning center Brian Boyle told NHL.com after the game. “I’d love to play against us right now in our own den. It’s easy. Usually you’ve got to fight and claw your way to get scoring chances and get in front of the net. It’s too easy right now.”

The slip in play has been a bit disturbing to the coaching staff, as well.

The play around the net at both ends of the ice has been soft. Not enough boxing out in the defensive end and not enough willingness to get to the high traffic areas in the offensive zone.

For a team that has been more committed to defense under the current coaching staff, it’s now an area of concern, especially with Anton Stralman still out of the lineup due to injury.

“We’ve got to find ourselves,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper told NHL.com. “We’ve lost a little bit of our identity. We can’t think we’re going to walk into a game and get three or four. The 2-1 mentality has got to resurface.”

Postgame notes: D Anton Stralman missed his ninth consecutive game with an undisclosed upper-body injury. There’s a chance he’ll return for Thursday’s game at St. Louis. … RW J.T. Brown returned to the lineup after missing three games with an upper body injury. … RW Ryan Callahan was a late scratch and is listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury. Callahan did take part in the morning skate. … C Valtteri Filppula, who scored the only goal for Tampa Bay, recorded his 150th career goal and 50th goal with the Lightning. … C Vladislav Namesntikov was benched for most of the third period, taking just three shifts but did not play for a stretch of 14 minutes. … D Slater Koekkoek also saw his ice time limited in the third period, playing only 2:59 on three shifts, none for an eight minute stretch. … With the bench shortened, C Brian Boyle took a handful of shifts on defense in the third period.

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