Of course, it's too early to watch the scoreboard every night, but it is starting to get late early as the number of games starts to tick down. After the loss, Columbus has 23 to play, which means the final quarter of the season is calling.
Here are three thoughts from the game.
1. Lineup Shuffle:Head coach John Tortorella is clear about how he approaches each game. It's a clean slate, and when the game comes down to crunch time, he's going to roll with the players he thinks are playing best.
On Tuesday night, that meant Anthony Duclair started the game in place of Panarin on the team's top line with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Cam Atkinson. But by the end of the game, Duclair, Dubois and Oliver Bjorkstrand were iced for the last 13 minutes, as Tortorella liked what he was getting from his fourth line and impressed with the efforts from Alex Wennberg and Eric Robinson.
That meant Wennberg and Robinson were paired with Atkinson down the stretch, while the Nick Foligno-Boone Jenner-Josh Anderson line also got a lot of time. In addition, the Lukas Sedlak-Brandon Dubinsky-Riley Nash line earned some late ice time.
"The three lines were playing that I thought were the three lines that I thought gave us the best chance," Tortorella said. "I wanted to shorten the bench. I felt I was getting more - I thought Nasher's line gave us a lot of forechecking and some chances. Once I shortened it to try to claw back in it, those three guys - Bjorky, Luc and Duc - were iced a bit and I wasn't going to put them back on the ice at that point in time. I felt comfortable with the three lines."
2. Andy the Man:Tortorella leaned heavily on the Foligno-Jenner-Anderson line, and if there was one player who leapt off the page for the Blue Jackets, it was big No. 77.
In addition to scoring the first CBJ goal and assisting on the second, Anderson was everywhere, creating changes and agitating with his physical play. He finished with 22:27 of ice time, most among the forwards, and added four hits to his two-point night.
"You want your best players to be peaking at this time of year, and he is doing everything he can to help us win games," Foligno said.
"He's become a force," Tortorella added.
One reason behind the recent success, including six goals in the last 10 games to push him to a career-high 21? Confidence.
"I feel pretty good," Anderson said. "I think I'm getting scoring chances and playing the game I need to play to be successful. I'm pretty confident right now."
3. Bad Beats?Columbus has dropped two in a row but didn't feel like it played poorly in either game.
It's hard to believe that on the surface after a 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay, but the Lightning are a buzzsaw right now and remain in contention to set an NHL regular-season wins record. On Tuesday night, the second of a back-to-back, without top center Brayden Point and Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Victor Hedman, the Lightning blitzed red-hot Philadelphia 5-2.
Then, the Jackets felt like they hung in against Montreal, weathered the storm, and battled back from an early deficit only to give up the deciding goal in the final seven minutes.
"It's two games now where I felt like we played well and got nothing to show for it," Foligno said. "We have to find a way to play the full game. These little blips in the game are what's costing us."
To wit - each of the first two goals were a bit of bad luck. On the first, Robinson blocked a centering pass only for the puck to bounce right back to Max Domi, who then had Sergei Bobrovsky out of position. On the second goal, a shot wide caromed back off the boards with such force the Canadiens' Paul Byron scored before Bobrovsky could get reset.
There was no such luck on the last goal, though, as a defensive miscommunication and a nice bit of creativity by Montreal allowed Jordie Benn to find Tomas Tatar at the back door for the winner.
"We're right there," Tortorella said. "We're just having problems trying to finish games."
