Just like the Tampa Bay Lightning learned lessons from losing to the Columbus Blue Jackets last season, the Blue Jackets can learn from losing to Tampa.
Last season, the Columbus Blue Jackets got the best of the Tampa Bay Lightning, sweeping them in the first round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. This year, the Bolts returned the favor by besting the Blue Jackets in five games in the first round.
While their series with the Lightning didn’t end as well as they were hoping, the Blue Jackets should be proud of how they fought in the series. Each of their losses to Tampa were by merely one goal. They were close to potentially upsetting the Lightning again, but the pucks were nearly as friendly to them this year as they were last year.
When the Lightning lost to the Blue Jackets last year, they took some lessons from it. You could see it in the way they played this year and their series victory proves they learned those lessons well. The Blue Jackets should take some notes because that’s how they’re going to get better.
Columbus is in good hands with John Tortorella. The Blue Jackets overcame so much adversity this season. No one projected them to be in the playoffs and though it technically took a pandemic for them to even have a shot at making the playoffs, they made the best of the shot given to them.
It wasn’t easy for them to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, as they needed all five games to do it, but they did. So many things went wrong this season for the Blue Jackets. It was enough to make people question if the team was cursed. But instead of underachieving, the Blue Jackets kept fighting and got further than anyone could have expected.
Here are three things the Blue Jackets should take away from their rough series loss to the Lightning.