The Columbus Blue Jackets were so angered and bewildered by their latest sleepy start that a furious finish — and an “almost” comeback against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday — wasn’t nearly enough to make them feel any better.
Mikael Pyyhtiä, Adam Fantilli and Cole Sillinger each scored third-period goals to turn a 4-0 blowout into a one-goal nail-biter late in the third period, but the Blue Jackets were quite capable of digging out of the hole they dug in the first 40 minutes.
The Lightning scored an empty-net goal with 2:09 remaining to cap the scoring on a 5-3 win before 19,092 in Amalie Arena, continuing a Blue Jackets slide that now stands at 1-6-2 since Dec. 1.
“We were very frustrated after two (periods) with the way we were competing, the way we were battling, the way we were soft,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason told reporters in Tampa Bay. “It looked like we were intimidated for whatever reason. Yeah, in the third period … it’s easy to respond when you get into a situation like that and you get prodded a little bit.”
Asked what prompted the third-period push, Fantilli was even more blunt.
“Being down 4-0 … it’s kind of embarrassing,” he said.
The result wasn’t the Blue Jackets’ only loss in the game.
At 3:08 of the second period, Tampa Bay’s Conor Geekie slammed into Blue Jackets defenseman Dante Fabbro with a knee-on-knee hit that led Fabbro writhing on the ice, clutching his right knee. He needed help getting off the ice — Zach Werenski guided him toward the bench — and he did not return.
The Blue Jackets did not offer an update on Fabbro after the game, but it didn’t look good.
Geekie was initially called for a major penalty (kneeing), but after a quick review, the penalty was reduced to a minor penalty. Replays showed Geekie did not extend his knee to make contact, but it also showed Fabbro’s right leg whipping back awkwardly.
Evason did not agree with the call.
“The hit is terrible,” Evason said. “It’s terrible. It’s not a hockey play. We’ve got a guy who’s laying on the table right now. It’s unfortunate.”
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About six minutes later, Sillinger came from the other side of the rink — his gloves flying off his hands along the way — to confront Geekie in front of the Blue Jackets’ bench. Geekie fell quickly to the ice, but a scrum formed between the two teams.
“As a group, we didn’t like the hit on Fabs,” Sillinger said. “He didn’t return to the game. I was kind of seeing red a little bit.
“Maybe it put our team in jeopardy (with the ensuing penalties). You don’t want to take a five-minute penalty and get scored on it. That one’s on me for that. But you want to stick up for your teammates.”
Sillinger was given two for roughing, five for fighting and a 10-minute penalty for instigating. It landed the Blue Jackets on a five-minute penalty kill, and they managed to kill 4:25 of it before the Lightning scored to take a 4-0 lead.
Evason’s thoughts: “(Sillinger) did the right thing. For sure, our group stuck together.”
Fabbro was a waiver claim from Nashville on Nov. 10, but he has taken on a massive role with the Blue Jackets, playing on the right side of Werenski on the club’s No. 1 pair. He’s been a steady, conservative player, allowing Werenski — off to the best start of his career — to be aggressive offensively.
The Blue Jackets, for a second straight game, played the majority of the night with only five defensemen. (Jack Johnson took a high stick to the eye on Sunday in Carolina.)
But that was only part of the reason the Blue Jackets’ third-period uprising was so unexpected. For the first 40 minutes, they just weren’t engaged. Their skating looked slow next to the Lightning, their puck battles were half-hearted and so on.
“Are we happy with the response?” Evason said. “Absolutely. We don’t question how hard our group is trying to work. But for two periods … there’s no reason you don’t start that way. The frustrating part is that we know we can do it, but we’re not doing it on a consistent basis.”
At 7:23 of the third, Pyyhtiä scored a shorthanded goal after Sean Kuraly jumped on an uncharacteristic turnover by Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman and fed the young Finn for a clean look on goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Only 42 seconds later, the Jackets got behind the Lightning defense again, this time on a three-on-one. Fantilli, who has been cold offensively in recent weeks, scored on a wrister from the high slot to make it 4-2.
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— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) December 18, 2024
The most impressive goal — one of the best goals the Jackets have scored this season — was a power-play goal by Sillinger at 14:11. Kirill Marchenko fell while playing the puck in the corner, but managed to sweep the puck toward the slot off his backhand as he tumbled.
The puck was right on Dmitri Voronkov’s tape, but he had his back to the net and a Lightning player draped upon him. His only play was a nifty one-touch back to Sillinger, who snapped off a wrister that beat Vasilevskiy to the top right corner of the cage.
It was 4-3, and Amalie Arena fell quiet. It was beginning to look a lot like the meeting between the two clubs in Columbus on Nov. 21, when the Lightning took a 3-0 lead in the first period but allowed the Jackets to rally for a 7-6 overtime win.
But this time the Jackets couldn’t get there. Brayden Point’s empty-net goal extinguished the rally.
“For the last couple of games, our starts haven’t been where they need to be, or even close to where they need to be,” Sillinger said. “When we start behind the eight ball, it’s not ideal.
“We have to play a full 60, and you can’t play a full 60 if you don’t start when the puck drops.”
(Photo: Klement Neitzel / Imagn Images)
