Columbus Blue Jackets at Tampa Bay Lightning: game preview
ColumbusBlue Jackets2026-27: 1-1-0 · 2 pts · 2025-26: 40-30-12 · 92 pts · 17that
Tampa BayLightning2026-27: 2-1-0 · 4 pts · 2025-26: 50-26-6 · 106 pts · 5thFourteen points apart last season
Columbus finished last season 17th in the league on 92 points. Tampa Bay finished 5th on 106.
Game-day prices arrive with the afternoon snapshot, about 4:30 PM ET on the day of the game.
Meeting number 66
Across 65 completed games, Tampa Bay lead the head-to-head 41-23-1.
Last 5 meetings
See all: Last 5 meetings →The table on each 2025-26 meeting night
League rank after that night's games; a longer bar is a higher place. On 18 Oct 2025, Columbus were 25th in the league and Tampa Bay 29th. By 10 Mar 2026 it was 12th and 6th.
Tampa Bay out-attempted Columbus 174 to 166
Every attempt from the last meetings, both teams shooting right.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Tampa Bay Lightning
Columbus and Tampa Bay are level on chances, last 10 games
Shot quality both ways: expected goals weigh every unblocked attempt by its chance of scoring. Finishing above zero means more goals than the chances.
This season: 2 games for Columbus, 3 for Tampa Bay. Small sample: early-season xG moves a lot from night to night.
Last 10 games: 10 games for Columbus, 10 for Tampa Bay.
2025-26: 82 games for Columbus, 82 for Tampa Bay.
Power play and penalty kill, season and series
This season's rates first, then 2025-26 and the last meetings between the two. Power-play chances are counted from the penalty log with coincidental minors cancelled; faceoffs are each club's wins over draws taken.
All bars share one scale · 0–100%SeasonLast meetings
Columbus
Small sampleTampa Bay
Small sampleSkaters to watch
Each club's top three forwards and defencemen by points this season, with 2025-26 one tap away.
Who has stopped this matchup
Save percentage in the last meetings by goalie. Starters are confirmed on game day.
Columbus crease
CBJ · 2026-27 Starter estimate from 4 Dec
No appearances against Tampa Bay in the last meetings.
Tampa Bay crease
TBL · 2026-27 Starter estimate from 4 Dec
No appearances against Columbus in the last meetings.
Scoring rates point to about 6.2 goals
No total is posted yet: it arrives with the game-day prices. Until then, the scoring rates and the recent meetings set the range.
Goals in the last 5 meetings
Bar length is total goals, coloured by the winner.
Scoring rates
Columbus3.503.503.093.09
Tampa Bay2.672.333.542.82Goals for and against per game. The estimate averages each team’s scoring with the other’s goals allowed, and leans on 2025-26 until a team has played 20 games.
3 on the injury lists
Columbus · injuries
No players listed.
Tampa Bay · injuries
Latest moves
See all: Latest moves →Placed LW Mikael Pyyhtia on waivers.
Placed D Ivan Provorov on injured reserve.
Assigned G Pheonix Copley to Cleveland (AHL).
Placed C Jansen Harkins on waivers.
Placed D Michael Callahan on waivers.
Placed D Michael Callahan, G Mads Sogaard Nielsenon, LD Maxim Groshev, LW Jakob Pelletier and C Nicholas Abruzzese on waivers.
Columbus · 2026 draft
See all: Columbus · 2026 draft →Tampa Bay · 2026 draft
See all: Tampa Bay · 2026 draft →Monday 7 December · the full slate
See all: Monday 7 December · the full slate →
Updated after every final