NHL Game Preview: Columbus Blue Jackets at Tampa Bay Lightning with Line Combinations 3/4/2025

NHL Game Preview: Columbus Blue Jackets at Tampa Bay Lightning with Line Combinations 3/4/2025

Columbus Blue Jackets (30-22-8, 68 Pts) at Tampa Bay Lightning (35-21-4, 74 Pts)

Venue: Amalie Arena
Date: Tuesday, March 4
Time: 7:00 pm EST
TV: ESPN+/FDSNOH/FDSN SUN
Radio:
Columbus – CBJ Radio App, 93.3 The Bus
Tampa Bay – 102.5 The Bone

DraftKings Sportsbook Betting Lines:

Columbus +1.5 ML +150
Tampa Bay -1.5 ML -180
O/U 6.5

Purchase tickets via Ticketmaster

Columbus Blue Jackets News & Notes:

The Blue Jackets have won four straight most recently winning against the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 on Saturday. In their recent win streak, they’ve averaged 5.25 goals per game while allowing an average of 2.50 goals per game. Adam Fantilli has a five-game point streak recording three goals and three assists in that streak. Boone Jenner has seven points in his first four games of the season all on assists.

Tampa Bay Lightning News & Notes:

The Lightning suffered their first loss in regulation since January 28th last night in a 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers. The lone goal came from Brayden Point. Andrei Vasilevskiy turned aside 27 of the 29 shots he faced.

Columbus Blue Jackets Projected Lines

Voronkov-Fantilli-Marchenko
Chinakhov-Jenner C. Sillinger-K. Johnson
Ashton-Reese-Danforth-Olivier
Labate-Kuraly-van Riemsdyk

Werenski-Fabbro
Mateychuk-Provorov
Christiansen-Severson

Merzlikins
Tarasov

Columbus Hockey – Inside The Rink

Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines

Guentzel-Point-Kucherov
Hagel-Cirelli-Girgensons
Chaffee-Paul-Goncalves
Eyssimont-Glendening-Perbix

Hedman-Moser
McDonagh-Cernak
Lilleberg-Raddysh

Vasilevskiy
Johansson

Buy Tampa Bay Hockey Merchandise Below!
Tampa Bay Hockey – Inside The Rink

Players To Watch:

Columbus Blue Jackets

Zach Werenski this season has 64 points on 18 goals and 46 assists. He’s faced the Lightning 23 times in his career recording 18 points on six goals and 12 assists; in two meetings this season he has five points on two goals and three assists.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Nikita Kucherov this season has 86 points on 27 goals and 59 assists. He’s faced the Blue Jackets 29 times in his career recording 44 points on 13 goals and 31 assists; in the two meetings this season he’s recorded four assists.

Injury Report:

Columbus Blue Jackets

C Cole Sillinger – Out
D Erik Gudbranson – IR
C Owen Sillinger – IR
RW Kevin Labanc – IR
C Sean Monahan – IR

Tampa Bay Lightning

None

Next Game

Columbus – March 6 at Florida Panthers
Tampa Bay
– March 6 vs. Buffalo Sabres

ITR 49: For Real This Time Inside The Rink

Join Chris and Conrad as they discuss Milan Lucic's recent PTO with the St. Louis Blues, Marco Rossi inks a contract extension, and is Carey Price's contract about to be traded? All of this and much more!
  1. ITR 49: For Real This Time
  2. ITR 48: Testing…Testing…
  3. ITR 47: Then There Was Nothing
  4. ITR 46: Offseason Chaos
  5. ITR 45: Everything Is Happening

Discover more from Inside The Rink

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Reply

Darnell Nurse Out for Stanley Cup Rematch

The Edmonton Oilers Right-Side Defense Problem

The Edmonton Oilers are built to win now, but there’s one flaw that keeps showing up: their blue line is unbalanced. Management says the defense is fine, but anyone looking closely can see the hole on the right side. Too Many Lefties Edmonton has four strong left-shot defensemen. Jake Walman was excellent in the 2025 […]

Read More
Aaron Bell Hockey Author

An Email Interview with Hockey Author, Photographer, Filmmaker, and more – Aaron Bell

While we all love hockey here at Inside the Rink, it is certainly not everything in life. This is especially the case for Aaron Bell. Bell is a five-tool person when it comes to hockey as he is someone who makes hockey videos, writes hockey articles, recently published a book, has his own website, and […]

Read More

New Jersey Devils Sign Four Players To PTO’s

The New Jersey Devils have announced that they’ve signed forwards Kevin Rooney and Luke Glendening, along with goaltenders Georgi Romanov and Adam Scheel, to Professional Tryouts. Forwards Kevin Rooney The Former Devil is back in Jersey after playing his first 95 games with the Devils from 2016 to 2020, during which he scored 10 goals […]

Read More