Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Islanders preview: No love lost between these teams

Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Islanders: ROUND 3, GAME 4

Time: 3:00 pm Eastern Time

Location: Rogers Place

Broadcast/Streaming: NBC, SN, TVA-S, FuboTV

Opponent SBNation Site: Lighthouse Hockey

Preview:

It may not have been the result Lightning fans wanted, but Game 3 featured a pretty reassuring performance from a team that many expected to struggle — and if you expected the Lightning to sweep the Islanders, well, that’s definitely not happening now. They also weren’t going to keep their undefeated stretch going forever.

Barry Trotz said his Islanders buried themselves with self-inflicted mistakes in Game 1. In Game 3, it was the Lightning’s turn to do the same, as failing to clear pucks from the zone cleanly led to a turnover on the eventual game-winning goal. It was unfortunate, because despite being down three vital forwards (Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, and Alex Killorn), the Lightning played really well for the majority of the game.

Jon Cooper had no update on Point yesterday, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the Lightning have to play a second straight game without their leading scorer. Thankfully, they will get Killorn back today (and hopefully that’ll be the end of the team’s suspensions for the rest of the playoffs). Both Mitchell Stephens and Carter Verhaeghe looked really solid last game, and they’ve made it difficult for Cooper to take either one out of the lineup with Killorn’s return.

The Lightning remained the dominant team at 5-on-5 in Game 3 and there’s no reason to expect that to change heading into today’s game. Regardless of Point’s status, the team proved they can survive — and even thrive at times — without him.

The afternoon start will be another change (the NHL clearly didn’t want to fight the NFL for viewers on a Sunday night, which is fair), but if the last day game the Lightning played was any indication (a Game 4 win over the Boston Bruins), they should be fine. Though things got chippy last game, as long as the Lightning keep their heads on straight, they’ll set themselves up for another solid performance in Game 4.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Forwards

Ondrej Palat - Anthony Cirelli - Nikita Kucherov

Alex Killorn - ? - Tyler Johnson

Barclay Goodrow - Yanni Gourde - Blake Coleman

Cedric Paquette - Patrick Maroon

Alexander Volkov, Mathieu Joseph, Carter Verhaeghe, Mitchell Stephens

Injured: Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point

Defense Pairs

Victor Hedman - Zach Bogosian

Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak

Mikhail Sergachev - Kevin Shattenkirk

Luke Schenn, Braydon Coburn

Injured: Jan Rutta

Goaltenders

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Curtis McElhinney

New York Islanders

Forwards

Anders Lee - Mathew Barzal - Jordan Eberle

Anthony Beauvillier - Brock Nelson - Josh Bailey

Andrew Ladd - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Leo Komarov

Matt Martin - Casey Cizikas - Cal Clutterbuck

Michael Dal Colle, Derick Brassard

Defense Pairs

Adam Pelech - Ryan Pulock

Devon Toews - Scott Mayfield

Nick Leddy - Andy Greene

Goaltenders

Semyon Varlamov

Thomas Greiss