The Series: Blue Jackets vs Lightning

Heading into the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Lightning weren’t just favored to win, they were MASSIVELY favored to win. The Lightning were 2/1 odds to win the Cup, ahead of the Flames who were 8/1 odds. The Lightning were the favorite for good reason. Listen to these stats:

62-16-4 (second time in NHL history a team has had 62 wins)

325 goals for, 3.96 goals a game (league average was 244, 2.97 goals a game)

128 points (won Presidents’ Trophy by 21 points)

.780% point percentage (league average was .533%)

Clinched playoffs on March 8th (opponent clinched on April 5th)

So yeah, they weren’t just kind of good, they were legendary level good. They were led by Brayden Point (92 points), Steven Stamkos (98 points), and Nikita Kucherov (128 points). Kucherov would break the record for most points by a player during the salary-cap era.

The Lightning were 1st in power play and penalty killing. While having the 12th most shots in the league, they did have the highest shooting percentage. While on the topic of shots, they let up the highest amount of shots, but they also have the third highest save percentage.

Now let’s talk about their opponent, the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Blue Jackets were only 2 points away from being out of the playoffs, but they were on a 2 game winning streak going into the playoffs. They were 12th in goals for and 11th in goals against. The Jackets also were 2nd in penalty killing, only 0.02 behind the Lightning, but 28th in power play. The Jackets had the lowest odds to win the series, and even lower odds to win the Cup, lowest in the league to be exact.

The Jackets had 4 rookies during the 2018-19 season, with the 2 most important being Alexandre Texier and Vladislav Gavrikov.

Columbus was led by powerhouse Artemi Panarin. Panarin was the only player on the Jackets with more than a point per game (87 points in 79 games). Behind him was Cam Atkinson who had 69 points in 80 games and Pierre-Luc Dubois with 61 points in 82 games. Those 3 players were the only players on this team with more than 60 points.

Columbus was led by goaltender Sergei Bobvroksky who led the league in shutouts with 9, compared to the starter for the Lightning, Andrei Vasilevskiy, who had 6. Tampa also beat Columbus by an average of 4.67 goals a game in their 3 regular season matchups.

(One thing I found interesting was the stats for the goalies for Tampa. I didn’t know that Domingue did that well during the season.)

So just by the stats, Columbus was enormously outmatched. Many people laughed at them, and were prepared for a potential sweep by the Lightning.

Game 1 went as planned. Tampa would take an early 3 goal lead by scoring 3 straight in the first period. But head coach of the Blue Jackets, John Tortorella would have none of it.

Game 1 went as planned, until the second period. The Bolts on the powerplay, they would get a 2 on 0, a surefire goal. But Bobrovsky has other plans…

Eventually, Folingo would steal the puck from the Bolts, and on a breakaway, would put the Jackets on the board.

Bobrovsky would make some incredible saves to keep the Bolts from scoring throughout the end of the second. Then, about halfway into the third, Savard would cut the deficit in half.

I didn't know this, but the goal was this close to being called offsides:

Then, a little more than 4 minutes later, the Jackets came this much closer to reaching the top of the mountain from a shorthanded goal by Josh Anderson.

Finally, on the powerplay, Jones puts the final goal home.

Eventually, the buzzer sounded, and Columbus completed the Game 1 upset. Columbus would beat the Bolts in shots in the third period, and would beat them in faceoffs. Tampa would also have more giveaways than Columbus had, really helping them score.

Everyone was shocked, but knew that Tampa would bounce back and win Game 2.

But no one was prepared for what was going to happen next.

In Game 2, Tampa would register 9 giveaways, which would help Columbus score 5 goals compared to Tampa’s 1. Yes, Columbus would win Game 2, 5-1, including 3 straight goals to start the game.

Matt Duchene scoring against Vasilevskiy in Game 2. Source: rawcharge.com (Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)

For Game 3, this would be the second year in a row where Columbus went into a home playoff game with a 2-0 series lead. But this time, they would make sure they didn’t blow it. Columbus would seal the game with an empty net goal by Cam Atkinson to make the game 3-1.

Now heading into Game 4, Columbus was on the verge of a sweep. But, sadly, no one was allowed to bring a broom into the arena due to Security.

Heading into the game, Tampa would get star forward Nikita Kucherov back after serving a one game suspension for boarding during Game 2. Early in the game, Columbus would get a power play and would capitalize. The scorer? Rookie Alexandre Texier, who would score his first ever playoff goal. 1 minute and 22 seconds later, Dubois would extend the lead off of a bounce. Not long after, Stamkos would make a nice move and put the Lightning on the board. Though, once again, Columbus would score on the powerplay, only for it to be called off due to offsides.

Later in the second period, Seth Jones would get that goal back to extend the lead once again. But, Cedric Paquette would score to bring the lead back down to 1. Then almost 5 minutes later on the power play, Brayden Point would score as well, tying the game. Not even a minute later, on a delayed penalty, Columbus would take the lead right back.

Columbus would hold onto this lead for the rest of the game, and all it took was 3 empty net goals (1 by Panarin, Texier, and Duchene) to seal the series.

I remember watching this game. Those empty net goals still give me goosebumps. Even the fans were ecstatic. As the final buzzer went, fans were shaking the glass.

Trade deadline pickup, Matt Duchene would prove to be one of the best players on the ice during that series, leading with 7 points. Bobrovsky would also finish with a .932 Save Percentage and a 2.00 Goals Against Average.

For the Lightning, Art Ross winner Nikita Kucherov was only held to 2 points in the 3 games he played, as was Steven Stamkos. Brayden Point was held to only 1 point. The 24 year-old goalie, Vasilevskiy would finish with a .856 Save Percentage and a 3.75 Goals Against Average.

Most of the goals scored by the Blue Jackets were in the slot, 10 of them to be exact. But probably some of the most important goals were scored from the point. 5 of the goals by the Blue Jackets were scored from the points. The other 4 were empty net goals. One thing I did find is that everytime they scored from the point, it was high.

Source: icydata.hockey

These were Vasilevskiy’s goals that he gave up in the 2018-19 regular season. This is almost the exact same thing that he gave up in the postseason.

Columbus would go 5/9 on the powerplay, while Tampa went ⅙. Keep in mind, Columbus had one of the worst power plays in the league and Tampa had the best. Columbus also did have one of the best penalty kills, but so did Tampa. So the question is what Columbus did differently on the power play and penalty kill from their regular season matchups against Tampa. That, I do not know, but it may be fun to find out one day.

As of today, 11 of the players on this Columbus roster are now gone. Either on another team, or retired. This team did end up losing in the second round to the Boston Bruins, but it was a hard fought series by the Jackets. On the other end, Tampa fans did not like the loss and ended up posting this tweet:

Oh and this series has its own wikipedia page, so yeah, this series was a big deal.

Stats from: www.hockey-reference.com, www.cbssports.com, youtube.com, wikipedia.org, nhl.com