They do not exactly hang out in the same NHL circles.
One group of players has won a league-high 185 games the last four seasons and have their names carved on the Stanley Cup. The other team has won 45 fewer games and hasn’t gotten past the second round of the postseason.
So how in the world has Columbus become Tampa Bay’s arch nemesis?
It could be the hard-checking style the Blue Jackets play, it could be coach John Tortorella’s evil mojo, it could be nothing more than simple happenstance. But it happened again on Tuesday night when the Blue Jackets embarrassed the Lightning, 4-2, at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.
How unlikely is this scenario?
Columbus has an unsightly 2-7 record since March 20, and yet both victories are against Tampa Bay. The Blue Jackets are in sixth place in the Central Division, and yet they are the only team with a winning record against the Lightning in 2021.
In their last 15 meetings, including the postseason, the Blue Jackets have gone 8-7 against the Lightning and outscored them 48-35.
Weird? Maybe. Annoying? Definitely.
Of course, Tampa Bay’s current woes extend well beyond its struggles against the Blue Jackets. The Lightning have now dropped five of their last seven games, and their offense is stuck in a two-week funk.
Still, coach Jon Cooper did not sound overly concerned during Tuesday’s morning skate. Even with the mini-slump, the Lightning came into the game tied for third in the league in scoring, and that’s without Nikita Kucherov who has yet to play this season following hip surgery.
“You take a guy out of our lineup like Kuch, and the fact that we’ve still been scoring at the rate we have been, I applaud the guys in the room,” Cooper said. “So you get used to it, and when it doesn’t happen it seems like alarm bells are going off.”
Alarm bells? Steven Stamkos has gone seven games without a goal. Ding! Ondrej Palat has one goal in his last 14 games. Ding! Alex Killorn has zero points in his last five games. Ding! Tampa Bay has averaged 1.8 goals in its last five games. Ding, ding, ding!
Just like nearly every other game in recent weeks, the Lightning had to depend on their fourth line for their scoring. Tampa Bay was down 4-0 halfway through the third period when Ross Colton finally put the puck in the net for his fifth goal in 13 games this season.
Tampa Bay actually controlled the tempo for much of the game’s first 15 minutes, but a momentary defensive lapse seemed to shift the momentum for the next 25 minutes.
Coming out from behind their own goal with a little more than five minutes remaining in the first period, the Blue Jackets caught Tampa Bay flatfooted. Seth Jones sent a long pass to Max Domi on the wing, and he hit Zac Dalpe directly in front of the net as he skated past Tyler Johnson and Victor Hedman for the goal.
A turnover behind the Lightning net two minutes into the second period led to a Jack Roslovic goal to put Tampa Bay in a 2-0 hole.
