Volume without reward
Columbus put up more than 70 shot attempts against Florida on Tuesday and scored once. The 4-1 home defeat summed up the Blue Jackets’ season in a single evening, and Rick Bowness was not in the mood to sugarcoat it. Several of those looks were prime chances that missed the net entirely, which, as the head coach pointed out, also kills any shot at a rebound.
The bigger numbers are worse. Columbus average 2.44 goals per game, 29th in the NHL. Only San Jose (2.43), Philadelphia (2.24) and Chicago (2.17) score less. Even that figure flatters them, because it includes a seven-goal night against Colorado on November 3. In nine of their last 11 games, the Blue Jackets have managed two goals or fewer.
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Werenski feels the clock ticking
Zach Werenski, the team’s best player from the blue line, put the issue down to chemistry. He still believes the answer is inside the dressing room, but he was clear that time is running short and that effort without results no longer satisfies anyone, fans or players.
Thursday offers a possible opening. Tampa Bay play the second night of a back-to-back, and Columbus are likely to face backup goaltender Dennis Hildeby rather than the Lightning’s regular starter. It is the first meeting between the clubs this season.
Lightning rolling, but short a centre
The Lightning are flying. They won 8-3 in Buffalo on Wednesday, their fourth win in five games, as Nikita Kucherov scored a natural hat trick in the third period and John Carlson posted his first career five-point game.
The night also brought the NHL debut of top prospect Sam O’Reilly, the 20-year-old acquired from Edmonton in July 2025 in the Isaac Howard trade. He picked up an assist on Yanni Gourde’s opener. O’Reilly arrives with a rare résumé: back-to-back Memorial Cups with two different OHL clubs, and regular-season, playoff and Memorial Cup MVP honours in a single campaign, a treble previously achieved only by Brad Richards, Corey Perry and Mitch Marner.
He has been pushed into the top six because Brayden Point is out with an undisclosed injury that could keep him sidelined for an extended spell.
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