Tampa Bay @ Columbus preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 8, 2019 ) Columbus 0, Tampa Bay 4

The Columbus Blue Jackets have played some solid hockey on the road of late and hope to enjoy some better home cooking Monday night when they entertain the NHL-best Tampa Bay Lightning. The Blue Jackets have won four in a row away from home after Saturday’s 5-2 triumph at Chicago, but dropped four of the last five at Nationwide Arena and were outscored 12-2 in a pair of losses against the Lightning earlier this season.

However, Columbus has been on a positive run overall of late with five wins in six contests to take third place in the Metropolitan Division and the top line of Artemi Panarin, Cam Atkinson and Pierre-Luc Dubois have played a big role. “I think we just played to our strengths,” Atkinson told reporters after his trio combined for four goals and two assists Saturday. “I think we did a lot of good reloading, which created a lot of turnovers. … Our whole line contributed. I think we all did a lot of good things, and we have to continue.” That trio will have produce another big effort against Tampa Bay, which boasts three 70-point scorers including the league leader Nikita Kucherov (94) and showed its defensive ability with shutouts from goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy in the last two of a five-game win streak. “I think we’re taking a little more pride in our D zone,” Lightning forward Yanni Gourde told reporters. “I think we don’t allow as (many) scoring chances and obviously Vasy is big time for us back there.”

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network, Sportsnet, TVA

ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (44-11-4): Vasilevskiy’s shutout in the 3-0 win over Montreal on Saturday gave him 18 in his career to pass Ben Bishop for the franchise record and the 24-year-old Russian stopped all 52 shots the past two games. “Fans the last six years have been pretty fortunate to first get to enjoy Ben Bishop and how he helped our franchise and to see Vasilevskiy,” coach Jon Cooper told reporters. “. … Goaltenders can mask a lot of mistakes and those two guys are a big part of our success with this franchise.” Kucherov recorded five goals and eight assists the last four games while captain Steven Stamkos has 10 points and fellow center Brayden Point owns nine during five-game point streaks.

ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (33-21-3): Panarin has four goals and three assists along with a plus-5 rating in the last four games to push his team-leading total to 67 points while Atkinson scored three of a team-best 32 goals in his past four outings. Dubois had a goal and an assist Saturday to move within one point of 100 in his career and fellow forward Josh Anderson boasts four goals in the past six games to reach 20 for the first time in the NHL. Seth Jones leads the defense with 36 points, including five assists in his past six outings, while fellow blue liner Ryan Murray has a career-high 29 points after posting four assists in the past three games and leads the team with a plus-20 rating -- plus-7 in his last seven contests.

OVERTIME

1. Kucherov needs one assist to tie the franchise record in a season of 68 set by Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards.

2. Blue Jackets F Kole Sherwood, a Columbus native, had four hits in 6 minutes, 58 seconds of ice time during his NHL debut Saturday.

3. Tampa Bay LW Ondrej Palat, who owns the franchise record with a plus-105 rating, has recorded five assists in his last three games.

PREDICTION: Lightning 3, Blue Jackets 2