Columbus Blue Jackets(38-28-6) @ Tampa Bay Lightning(23-33-16)
Your Blue Jackets will be in Tampa Tuesday night, March 24 2009, to battle the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tampa Bay will be looking to avoid a 7th straight home loss, but Columbus would be more than happy to continue that streak for Tampa, and get 2 more points in a tight Western Conference race.
Mason will probably get the nod once again, as he only lost 1 game this season against the Eastern Conference. Tampa Bay will look to their top players to get them out of this horrible streak, including Steven Stamkos. Stamkos is hot lately,4 goals in his previous 3 games, after a slow start he now has 18 goals and looks for a 20 goal rookie season. Keep an eye on the Jackets offense as they play a shaky defense in Tampa, who has had 20 different blue liners suit up this season, and loosing arguably their MVP on defense Cory Murphy for the season last week. Interesting note, Rick Nash has never scored against Tampa Bay in 5 career games, however I would make a bet that Nash finds the back of the net on either Karri Ramo, Mike Mckenna or Mike Smith, whoever Tampa gives the nod too.
Prediction: 4-2 Columbus. I really like the in game match up of the Jackets offense vs. the Lightning Defense. Look to see how Vermette and Umberger connect against a weak defense. Also look to see if Nash can net his first career goal against Tampa Bay.
Go Jackets!!
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