Bruins at Lightning Preview: It’s time to go and take advantage of a tired Boston team

Game #72 – Boston Bruins at Tampa Bay Lightning
Time: 7:30 PM EST
Location: Amalie Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: TNT/MAX, NESN, TVAS

Opponent’s Site: Stanley Cup of Chowder

Preview

Hey look, another team’s fan base can be annoyed at the NHL schedule makers. The Boston Bruins head into Tampa having played a tough opponent last night in the Florida Panthers. Meanwhile the Lightning had a couple of days off to relax and revel in their successful trip out west that resulted in them acquiring nine out of the ten points available to them. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t pretty at times, but they did what they had to do and it’s opened a little room for them in the standings.

In fact, the month of March as a whole has been quite productive as they posted a 7-1-1 record and picked up 15 out of 18 points. Considering the fact that it’s been a month of stops, starts, and late nights, it’s a pretty tidy piece of work for a team that may finally be coming into their own as the season hits the final weeks of action.

Tonight’s game against the Bruins kicks off a three-game road trip against teams still clinging to playoff aspirations. Boston is locked in a battle for the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Islanders (who the Lightning play on Friday) are still in the hunt, but desperately need wins, and Detroit is sitting right below the Lightning. Despite Tampa Bay’s recent winning ways, there is no room for them to let up and they have to keep the throttle wide open to bring this thing across the finish line.

The good news is that they kick things off against a team that, while they might not be a rival, they don’t like losing to. So, they should be pretty pumped up for the game. The big question going into the game will be the status of Victor Hedman and Brayden Point. Coach Cooper didn’t comment on them following the win on Sunday. The team didn’t practice Monday or Tuesday, so there was no update prior to today.

Following two days off there will likely be a full morning skate today and that will be the first chance to see if they’re back in their usual spots. The fact that a call-up hasn’t been announced is a good sign that whatever is ailing the duo isn’t considered long term, so lets put that positive energy out there so that they can get back into the line-up.

It hasn’t been all sunshine and roses for the Bruins lately. Heading into their game against the Panthers, last season’s President Cup winners had dropped games to Philadelphia and the New York Rangers. Their practice on Monday didn’t seem to meet their coach’s expectations as he was heard shouting, “Wake the [expletive deleted] up!” just a few minutes into the workout. He then had them skating sprints.

Over their last five games it’s been some of the depth players that have taken up the scoring as Jake DeBrusk leads them with six points and Justin Brazeau has five goals. Called up in late February, the 26-year-old, undrafted rookie has seven points in fifteen career games with five of those points coming in the three games prior to their tilt against Florida.

For the Bolts, we don’t have to tell you who is leading the way recently (it’s Point and Kucherov). However, The Captain has been on a bit of a heater recently as well as he has 9 points (4 goals, 5 assists) in his last 5 games. Four of those points (2 goals, 2 assists) have come on the power play, which sparked back to life over the road trip, going 5-for-20. While a 25% success rate is pretty good, you could argue that the Lightning were more successful as two of their power plays came with less than a minute to go in the win against Florida and they had another that came with just over a minute to go against Vegas with that game already decided. Considering that context they posted a 29% success rate, which is really, really good.

They will need to carry that success, as well as their 95% penalty kill rate, into the game against the Bruins tonight. This is the fourth and final meeting of the season between these two teams as the Lightning have sandwiched an overtime win and a shootout win around a weird 7-3 loss that wasn’t as bad as the final score would indicate.

Even with a win tonight, the Lightning aren’t likely to catch the Bruins, or even Toronto for that matter, but it could be a nice confidence boost against a team they might face in the first round of the playoffs.

Stats Match-up

Lines

Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines

Forwards
Anthony Duclair – Brayden Point (?) – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Steven Stamkos
Mikey Eyssimont – Tyler Motte – Conor Sheary

Tanner Jeannot – Luke Glendening – Mitchell Chaffee

Defenders
Victor Hedman (?) – Darren Raddysh
Matt Dumba – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Nick Perbix

Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy

Jonas Johansson

Look, these lines are just guesses. The Bolts did not practice on Tuesday and the status of Victor Hedman and Brayden Point is still unknown. Hopefully, there will be an update at the morning skate, but who knows. If we do see an update, we’ll let you know.

Boston Bruins Projected Lines

Forwards
Brad Marchand – Charlie Croyle – Jake DeBrusk

Danton Heinen – Pavel Zacha – David Pastrnak

Jakub Lauko – Morgan Geekie – Trent Frederic

John Beecher – Jesper Boqvist – Justin Brazeau

Defenders
Matt Grzeleyk – Charlie McAvoy

Hampus Lindholm – Brandon Carlo

Parker Wotherspoon – Andrew Peeke

Goalies

Linus Ullmark

Jeremy Swayman

Lines are based on how they started the game against Florida last night. If there are any changes, we probably won’t see them until warm-ups. With Swayman going against the Panthers, expect Ullmark in net.

The Playoff Race