Tampa Bay Lightning at Nashville Predators: Bolts go for the sweep

Tampa Bay Lightning at Nashville Predators: GAME 11

Time: 8:00 pm Eastern Time

Location: Bridgestone Arena

Broadcast/Streaming: NBCSN

Opponent SBNation Site: On the Forecheck

Preview:

The Lightning played one of their most complete games defensively on Monday night against the Predators. They limited Nashville to just 12 shots at 5v5 and only 3 high-danger chances. Most importantly they didn’t allow any odd-man rushes, something that seems to plague them on almost a nightly basis.

Nashville’s only real pressure came on the power play, that was also the only time they scored. It was also impressive that they kept their defense intact while still generating offense. They registered 47 shot attempts at even strength and 63 overall according to Natural Stat Trick.

That is in line with what Jon Cooper expects out of his team. According to the TV broadcast the other night against Detroit, Coach Cooper thinks his team should be able to generate roughly 20 shot attempts per period. They accomplished that on Monday and look to do it again on Tuesday.

After a night off, Andrei Vasilevskiy should be back in net and looking to extend his personal four-game winning streak. He’s been really good during that stretch, allowing just 4 goals against an expected goals of 5.82 at even strength. Vasilevskiy has also posted a 3.06 goals saved above average, third best in the league during that time frame.

It’s as if playoff Vasy has kept rolling right along despite the time off this season. With the Lightning figuring out their defensive rotation in front of him, that should put a little scare in the rest of the Central Division. After tonight’s game the level of competition does ramp a bit, but if Vasilevskiy and the players in front of him keep playing the way they have over the last week or so, the wins should keep rolling in.

The four goal output last night bumped the Lightning up to fourth in the league at 3.60 per game, trailing only Dallas, Toronto, and Montreal. They have only allowed 1.90 goals per game, tops in the league. The Stars are the only other team to be in the top five in both categories thus far in the season. It appears the Stanley Cup Hangover hasn’t quite kicked in yet.

Random Video

On Monday, the Predators wore their Reverse Retro jerseys that honored their inaugural season of 1998-99. Let’s jump back to those days of pagers, pleated khakis, paper tickets, and Barry Trotz with hair in this video.

Tampa Bay Lightning Lines

Forwards

Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Steven Stamkos

Alex Killorn - Anthony Cirelli - Tyler Johnson

Blake Coleman - Yanni Gourde - Barclay Goodrow

Pat Maroon - Mathieu Joseph

Defense

Victor Hedman - Jan Rutta

Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak

Mikhail Sergachev - Luke Schenn

Cal Foote

Goalies

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Curtis McElhinney

Lines based on assumption that Coach Cooper returns to 11/7 rotation.

Nashville Predators Lines

Forwards

Filip Forsberg - Matt Duchene - Viktor Arvidsson

Nick Cousins - Erik Haula - Mikael Granlund

Calle Jarnkrok- Colton Sissons - Eeli Tolvanen

Yakov Trenin - Michael McCarron - Mathieu Olivier

Defense

Roman Josi - Ryan Ellis

Jarred Tinordi - Dante Fabbro

Mark Borowiecki - Matt Benning

Goalies

Juuse Saros

Pekka Rinne

Lines based on last game.