PREVIEW: Blue Jackets return home to take on Lightning

Pascal Vincent made it clear Monday night after the Blue Jackets’ 5-3 loss at Dallas that there were certain parts of his team’s game that he did not like.

"I think we have more than this,” the CBJ head coach said. “I'm talking about the effort. A lot of guys worked hard, but we can't afford to have a few guys not working hard enough. That's not gonna fly. … I know we're young. I know we're gonna make mistakes, and I know those guys care and I know they want to do well. But tonight was not good enough, so we're going to address it."

The answer to that was a hard-skating 45-minute practice Tuesday ahead of tonight’s game in Nationwide Arena against the Lightning, but Vincent also said something Monday that he found to be true.

The old coaching maxim goes that things are never as bad as they seem but also never as good as they seem, given whatever direction a team is rolling, and Vincent discovered that when he watched the tape. When he took a look at the game with fresh eyes Tuesday morning, the head coach did see more things that were to his liking than he did in the live viewing.

Still, there were enough shortcomings that Vincent acknowledged he wanted more from his team.

“If we’re objective this morning, still not happy, but a lot of guys worked hard,” Vincent said. “A lot of guys. But we just need to be all-in, all of our guys. That’s the only way.”

The loss in Dallas left the Blue Jackets at 0-2-2 in the last four games, but Columbus feels like it’s close to turning some of those tight losses into tight wins. It’s a tough league – especially with a Stanley Cup winner coming to town tonight – but the Blue Jackets are learning on the job.

"It's the best league in the world, best players in the world, and everybody is doing their best to win,” rookie Adam Fantilli said after the Dallas game. “It's a veteran team over there that knows how to win and knows how to close out games.

“I'm not used to losing. I don't want to get used to losing. So I think we just gotta keep pushing and playing the right way and I think eventually they're gonna start to fall for us.”

Know The Foe: Tampa Bay Lightning

Head coach: Jon Cooper (12th season)

Team stats: Goals per game: 3.56 (7th) | Scoring defense: 3.11 (15th) | PP: 33.3 percent (3rd) | PK: 86.4 percent (8th)

The narrative: The 2020 and ‘21 Stanley Cup champs are coming off what can be considered a down year for one of the league’s most successful franchises, as the Lightning’s three-year stretch of appearances in the Cup Final ended a season ago with a first-round loss to Toronto. It’s a veteran team and the cast of characters is largely the same – though right now it’s without Andrei Vasilevskiy, the world-class goalie who is on the shelf with a back injury – so the Blue Jackets and their fans will know what they’re getting tonight.

Team leaders: As we said, you’ll know the names. Nikita Kucherov is off to a fast start, posting six goals and 11 points to lead the squad, while Brandon Hagel also has six goals among his 10 points. Brayden Point is off to a 2-8-10 start, while Victor Hedman is the team’s top-scoring defenseman with a 1-8-9 line. Steven Stamkos adds eight points with three goals and five helpers, while Nick Paul has five goals.

In net, the team has turned largely to Jonas Johansson, and he’s been solid. The former Sabre, Avalanche and Panther has posted a 4-3-1 record with 2.73 GAA and .922 save percentage. The only other goalie to play this year for the Lightning is former Ohio State netminder Matt Tomkins.

What's new: The Lightning comes to town on a six-game point streak, going 3-0-3 in the past six games. While many of the names at the top end are the same, the Bolts have swapped out some of the depth spots, bringing in Connor Sheary, Luke Glendening and Michael Eyssimont to bolster the forward crew and depending more on Darren Raddysh on the defensive end.

Trending: Columbus was swept by the Lightning a season ago and has won just one of the six contests over the past two seasons after going 3-3-2 against the Bolts during the COVID-shortened 2021 season.

Former CBJ: Tyler Motte played 31 games for the Blue Jackets during the 2017-18 season but is currently out with an upper-body injury.

3 Stats to Know

• Boone Jenner is currently tied for third all-time in points (334) in CBJ history with Nick Foligno. Jenner also now has 174 goals in team history, passing Foligno (172) for third earlier this season.
• With 170 career assists, Zach Werenski is three away from tying Seth Jones for most career assists by a defenseman in franchise history.
• Milestone watch: With 666 games played, Jenner is eight games away from tying Rick Nash for the franchise record. … Kent Johnson is five games from 100 for his NHL career (17-29-46, 95 GP). ... Jack Roslovic is four points from 200 and six games from 400 for his NHL career (73-123-196, 394 GP).

Who’s Hot

Rookie forward Dmitri Voronkov notched his first career goal Monday in Dallas, while offseason acquisition Damon Severson also earned his first tally with the squad as well. … Emil Bemstrom has three goals in the past four games and is tied for second in the NHL with three power-play tallies. … Roslovic has six points in the last six games (2-4-6). … Ivan Provorov has seven assists in the last eight games. … Jenner’s faceoff winning percentage of 61.0 is seventh in the NHL.

This Day in CBJ History

Nov. 2, 2010: Mathieu Garon makes 29 saves – his first of three shutouts in the month of November – as the Blue Jackets earn a 3-0 victor vs. Montreal in Nationwide Arena.

Roster Report

Projected Lineup (subject to change)

Johnny Gaudreau – Boone Jenner – Jack Roslovic
Kent Johnson – Adam Fantilli – Emil Bemstrom
Dmitri Voronkov – Cole Sillinger – Kirill Marchenko
Alexandre Texier – Sean Kuraly – Justin Danforth
Zach Werenski – Damon Severson
Ivan Provorov – David Jiricek
Jake Bean – Erik Gudbranson
Elvis Merzlikins
Spencer Martin

Scratches: Mathieu Olivier, Adam Boqvist, Andrew Peeke

Injured reserve/Injured Non-Roster: Patrik Laine (upper body, day to day as of Oct. 20), Daniil Tarasov (knee, week to week)

Roster Report: Marchenko will re-enter the lineup after two games as a healthy scratch, while Olivier will be the odd man out. Gudbranson has missed practice the past few days with a lower-body injury but did the same ahead of Monday’s game and still played.