Boston Bruins at Tampa Bay Lightning: GAME 66
Time: 7:30 pm Eastern Time
Location: Amalie Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: NBCSN, SNO, SNE, SNP, TVAS
Opponent SBNation Site: Stanley Cup of Chowder
Preview:
Life without Steven Stamkos has begun for the Tampa Bay Lightning. When it was announced that the team would be without their captain until at least the first round of the playoffs, the Bolts responded on the ice by defeating the Calgary Flames — and recent depth acquisitions Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman stepped up in a big way.
Today marks the first of an eight-day stretch where the Lightning play opponents within the Atlantic Division. In fact, they play the Boston Bruins again on Saturday. Although the Bolts were able to end their four game losing streak against Calgary over the weekend, these next five games are critical if they want to close the gap with Boston for first in the division. They do have one game in hand on the Bruins, but they’re still seven points back.
Speaking of Boston, they’ve won two straight games heading into Florida, where they’ll look to increase their stranglehold lead on the Atlantic. They just shut out the New York Islanders on Saturday, and Tuukka Rask will try to repeat that performance against the Lightning tonight. The Bruins did an excellent job of shutting down the Isles’ offense, and their blueline showed up on the scoresheet as well.
A positive heading into tonight for Tampa Bay is their record against Boston this season. They’ve won both of their previous matchups (albeit by one goal, and one was a shootout win). Both teams loaded up at the trade deadline, and will likely have to go through each other at some point in the playoffs to chase the Stanley Cup, so tonight’s game (and Saturday’s!) will be an important measuring stick for the Lightning. Can they close the gap on the Bruins? Yes, but the margin for error is shrinking, so win tonight will help tremendously.
Boston Bruins
Forward Lines
Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – David Pastrnak
Nick Ritchie – David Krejci – Ondrej Kase
Jake DeBrusk – Charlie Coyle – Karson Kuhlman
Sean Kuraly – Par Lindholm – Chris Wagner
Anders Bjork, Joakim Nordstrom, Anton Blidh
Defense Pairings
Zdeno Chara – Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug – Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk – Jeremy Lauzon
John Moore, Connor Clifton
Goaltenders
Tuukka Rask
Jaroslav Halak
Tampa Bay Lightning
Forward Lines
Ondrej Palat – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Blake Coleman – Anthony Cirelli – Alex Killorn
Barclay Goodrow – Tyler Johnson – Yanni Gourde
Patrick Maroon – Mitchell Stephens – Cedric Paquette
Carter Verhaeghe
Injured: Steven Stamkos
Defense Pairings
Victor Hedman – Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev – Kevin Shattenkirk
Braydon Coburn – Zach Bogosian
Luke Schenn
Injured: Ryan McDonagh, Jan Rutta
Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
