Tampa Bay Lightning at Carolina Hurricanes: An unexpected trip to Raleigh

Tampa Bay Lightning at Carolina Hurricanes: GAME 15

Time: 7:00 pm Eastern Time

Location: PNC Arena

Broadcast/Streaming: Fox SUN

Opponent SBNation Site: Canes Country

Preview:

Originally the Tampa Bay Lightning were scheduled to play against the Dallas Stars tonight, but Saturday’s and Thursday’s games were postponed due to a winter storm, which caused power outages and a state of emergency in Texas. Eventually, the NHL rescheduled their game against the Carolina Hurricanes from March 28 to tonight. After this changes, the Lightning will play four consecutive games against the Canes – the first two games will be with Carolina hosting at PNC Arena in Raleigh, then the series will move to Amalie Arena.

The most recent and the only meeting so far between these teams was very fun. Both teams played an intense, offensively orientated game, generating a lot of chances at both ends, which wasn’t exactly reflected at the scoreboard, as the game ended with a 1-0 overtime win by the Canes. Both goaltenders, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Petr Mrazek, played a stellar game and ended up unbeaten in regulation time, despite facing expected goals of 2.50 at 5v5.

However, Petr Mrazek won’t help his team tonight. The Czech goaltender underwent a surgery to repair his injured thumb and hasn’t played since late January. On the other hand, the Canes have gotten back six players from the NHL’s COVID protocol list, who were missing during the previous game against the Bolts. Last night they defeated the Chicago Blackhawks and originally should have played another game against them tonight, but that game was re-scheduled and the Canes will play against the Lightning instead.

The Hurricanes are currently on a five-game point streak, scoring three or more goals during this point streak. After fifteen games, the Canes are second in the Central Division in both total points and points percentage, trailing only to the Florida Panthers. The Lightning are one position below the Hurricanes, having one game in hand.

As for the Lightning, the team is still missing Anthony Cirelli and Mitchell Stephens, who are recovering from their injuries. Jon Cooper discussed the possibility of giving a chance to Ross Colton or Alex Barre-Boulet during their absence, saying that “when the time is right and we can get them in, we will”. Alex Barre-Boulet was already mixing in on second power play unit during practices with the team.

The Lightning weren’t planning on going to Carolina and are showing up without a possibility of having a morning skate ahead of the game. According to Jon Cooper and his players, the team have gotten used to sudden changes this season and should be ready to play at any occasion.

Tampa Bay Lightning Lines

Forwards

Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Steven Stamkos

Alex Killorn - Tyler Johnson - Mathieu Joseph

Blake Coleman - Yanni Gourde - Barclay Goodrow

Pat Maroon - Gemel Smith - Alex Volkov

Defense

Victor Hedman - Jan Rutta

Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak

Mikhail Sergachev - Luke Schenn

Goalies

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Curtis McElhinney

Carolina Hurricanes Lines

Forwards

Brock McGinn - Sebastian Aho - Teuvo Teravainen

Nino Niederreiter - Vincent Trocheck - Martin Necas

Andrei Svechnikov - Jordan Staal - Warren Foegele

Jordan Martinook - Cedric Paquette - Jesper Fast

Defense

Jaccob Slavin - Dougie Hamilton

Jake Gardiner - Brett Pesce

Brady Skjei - Jake Bean

Goalies

James Reimer

Alex Nedeljkovic