Tampa Bay brings a 4-1 recent run and a major power-index edge into Thursday’s matchup at Nationwide Arena.
Columbus hosts Tampa Bay on Thursday with a steep standings gap: the Lightning are 12-4-2 with 26 points, while the Blue Jackets are 7-9-0 with 14. Tampa ranks fifth in DYMA’s power index at 79.4, well ahead of Columbus at 42.9, and has won four of its last five while the Blue Jackets have dropped two straight. The key matchup is Tampa’s leading scorer Nikita Kucherov, who has 24 points in 16 games, against Columbus’ Kent Johnson, whose 14 points in 14 games lead the Blue Jackets. Columbus needs to limit a Lightning attack averaging 6.55 top-six points per game, compared with 4.19 for the Jackets, and make its own chances count to narrow the gap in form and overall efficiency.