Columbus Blue Jackets at Tampa Bay Lightning
With four wins in their last five games, the Blue Jackets have locked up a playoff spot, it’s just a matter of whether they play Boston or Pittsburgh in the first round.
In this mini streak, the Jackets have had some exceptional special teams: The power play is 6-for-19 (31.6-percent) and the penalty kill is 12-for-14 (85.7-percent) over that stretch. It also doesn’t hurt when your starting goaltender has a .945 save percentage for the month of April. In fact, Sergei Bobrovsky has a .932 save percentage since December 1st. My goodness.
Tampa Bay played (and won) last night and that brought them within one point of Montreal for second in the division, and home ice in the first round of the playoffs. A win in this game would put them ahead of Montreal with each team having one game remaining. They know exactly what is at stake.
Tampa seems pretty set with their lines and that means Tyler Johnson keeps his value for now. He still is not on the top power play unit with the big boys so his upside is a bit limited, but he is Steven Stamkos’ centreman and that’s not a bad place to be.
There has only been six total goals scored in the two games between these teams this year (both Columbus wins, but both by one goal and both in the non-Stamkos era). With both teams still having something to play for, this should be a playoff-type game and that means relatively low-scoring – I’m thinking no more than five total goals. One interesting play is Tampa’s call-up goalie Kristers Gudlevskis, who impressed so much at the Olympics. He’s an acceptable target for GPPs.
|
Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
|
(CBJ) $7285 |
(TBL) $10,562 |
Tyler Johnson (TBL) $8053 |
(TBL) $7185 |
(CBJ) $6233 |
