Just hand them the Cup. The most modern and complete team in the salary cap era is the Tampa Bay Lightning. Building through the draft, but also acquiring the right places, and having the right staff in the right place helps.

Debate is there: salary cap loopholes, state tax, the years they came close before. This team has it all: a strong captain that can score, the best defenseman and goalie in the world, and maybe the best Russian winger that is not Ovi. They also have the best trio down the middle since the 2009 Penguins.

After getting embarrassed by one of the top teams in the Metro; they now face one of the top teams of the Atlantic. Columbus had a series of roster moves due to health changes from protocol.

Zach Werenski is on COVID protocol with Gavin Bayreuther; Daniil Tarasov, Elvis Merzlikins, and Justin Danforth all have lower body injuries; and Alex Texier has an unrelated COVID illness. Hoffman continues to sit out, but all lines have been juggled.

Projected Lineups


Tampa Bay Lightning

Ondrej Palat—Steven Stamkos—Ross Colton
Alex Killorn—Brayden Point—Anthony Cirelli
Pat Maroon—Pierre-Edouard Bellemare—Corey Perry
Boris Katchouk—Riley Nash—Mathieu Joseph

Victor Hedman—Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh—Erik Cernak
Mikhail Segerachev—Andrej Sustr

Andrei Vaslievsky
Brian Elliott

Scratched— Cal Foote, Taylor Raddysh
Injured— Nikita Kucherov, Zach Bogosian, Gemel Smith, Brent Seabrook
Taxi Squad— Darren Raddysh


Columbus Blue Jackets

Patrik Laine—Cole Sillinger—Jakub Voracek
Oliver Bjorkstrand—Boone Jenner—Emil Bemstrom
Gustav Nyquist—Sean Kuraly—Max Domi
Eric Robinson—Jack Roslovic—Yegor Chinakov

Jake Bean—Adam Boqvist
Vladislav Gavrikov—Andrew Peeke
Gabriel Carlsson—Dean Kukan

Jonas Korpisalo
Jean-Francois Berube

Scratched— Gregory Hoffman, Scott Harrington
Injured— Justin Danforth, Elvis Merzlikins, Daniil Tarasov, Alexandre Texier, Gavin Bayreuther, Zach Werenski


Players to Watch


Tampa Bay— Steven Stamkos— the happy and healthy captain of the threepeat is their leading goal and point scorer with 16 goals and 39 points in 33 games. The dude has still got it all, and has dealt with some of the worst luck in injuries that one can ever deal with.

Columbus— Adam Boqvist— the youngster is getting a chance to show his skill in his second game back, and will do so on the top paid with Werenski out sick tonight.


More to come…

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