Five Takeaways from Lightning vs. Blue Jackets

The Tampa Bay Lightning wrapped up their regular season home schedule with another big win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Not only did the Lightning put together another strong outing but it was also another milestone night for Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman in the 4-1 win.

Let’s get into what happened.

1. 100 points for Stamkos

For the first time in his NHL career, Steven Stamkos has reached the 100-point mark in a season. Stamkos’ absolute heater continued again on Tuesday night with another four-point night with a pair of goals and two assists. Stamkos now has five straight games with three or more points. The next marker will be reaching 40 goals for the season, and he needs just one goal over the next two games to do so.

2. Hedman Reaches 600 Career Points

On the goal that gave Stamkos 99 points on the season, Victor Hedman recorded the primary assist for the 600th point of his career. The milestones have been piling up for the Lightning and now Victor Hedman is in on the action. His 600 points have come in 896 games despite not being a significant point producer in the earliest days of his career. His 82 points this season are also a career high.

3. A Solid Defensive Outing

The lone Columbus goal came on the powerplay in the first period. The team defensive performance continues to improve as the Lightning have allowed one or fewer goals at five-on-five in three of their last four games.

4. Vasilevskiy Steadily Improving

Andrei Vasilevskiy is undoubtedly the Lightning’s most important player, and his game has been beginning to turn the corner a bit. He had another strong performance in the win over Columbus and tracked the puck well throughout. He made 20 saves on 21 shots and will likely have one more start in the regular season Thursday night against Columbus again.

5. Increased opportunity for Foote

With Jan Rutta out of the lineup and Erik Cernak leaving the game in the first period, this opened the door for Cal Foote. He has been getting more action of late and played over 20 minutes and was +1 Tuesday night. With the defense at full health, Foote is likely still on the outside looking in at the lineup. But with his improved play and added experience of late, Foote will provide solid depth as a 7th defenseman and should be able to be counted on when his number is called.