Jan 24, 2026; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Brandon Hagel (38) is tripped by Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson (44) during the first period at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images
Here it is. The tape of tonight’s game. Go ahead and burn it.
Could we spend the next two-thousand words picking out everything that went wrong tonight? Sure, but it would probably take more than two-thousand words. They were on the back foot early with sloppy puck control and Columbus took advantage. Was it fatigue? Was it fate? It doesn’t really matter. Despite fighting back twice from two goals down, the Lightning weren’t able to find a way to win.
Jonas Johansson did not have a great night (23 saves on 29 shots), but he didn’t receive much support from the teammates in front of him. Adding literal injury to insult, Erik Cernak, Gage Goncalves, and Charle-Edouard D’Astous all left the game early with various ailments.
On the bright side, Simon Lundmark made his NHL debut and briefly had his first NHL point before the official scorers removed it from the Lightning’s first goal of the game. Nikita Kucherov continued his race up the scoring chart as he posted four points (1 goal, 3 assists) on the night. Gunetzel and Cirelli had three point nights as well.