Game Forty-nine: Chicago Blackhawks (15-29-5) at Tampa Bay Lightning (26-19-3)
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Location: Amalie Arena, Tampa
TV/Stream/Radio: FDSNSUN, CHSN, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App
Odds: Lightning -360
Know the Opponents: Second City Hockey
Alright. The road trip is over. There is no need to dwell on what could have been if the Tampa Bay Lightning had picked up a couple of more victories. Instead, it’s time to focus on moving forward and making the best of what is yet to come. Tonight’s game kicks off a five-game home-stand for the Bolts, their longest stretch of consecutive home games to date this season. With a 15-6-1 record at Amalie Arena, the Lightning have a chance to right their wonky ways and get back to climbing up the standings.
The lack of victories (and four days off sandwiched around their last two games) has allowed the Lightning to drop into the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with Ottawa (who the Lightning will face twice on this home-stand) and Boston leap-frogging them in the standings. The Senators are off tonight so a win (and a Bruins regulation loss) would vault Tampa Bay right back into the third spot. Parity, ain’t it grand?
While we don’t want to dwell on the road trip, the Lightning also have to pull some lessons from it. We’ll delve on that a little later today, but the big thing they have to focus on is that the framework of successful hockey was on display for a lot of the road trip. If Tampa Bay can trust the system, the wins (and goals) will follow. Why? Because they’re not going to shoot 6.77% over the next 30+ games. They have too much talent for that to continue. They were due for a little regression on their 12.79% shooting leading up to the road trip, and it seemed to happen last week.
“The goal scoring, at times during the season, does dry up, but you have to continue to stick to your process. Our process has been excellent. Ultimately, the group that we have, we are going to score. We can’t give up our defensive side of things,” Coach Cooper told the media after the morning skate.
A couple of players were particularly snake-bit on the road. Anthony Cirelli, who is having a breakout season offensively, posted a 2.77 iXG over the four games with 18 shots attempts and 10 individual high-danger chances. If he keeps playing like that, the goals will start flowing again. Brayden Point (1.60 iXG) and Brandon Hagel (1.42 iXG) were also held out of the goal column despite generating chances. The best players won’t be held down for long.
There will be a little shake-up in the line-up tonight based on the morning skate. It looks like Nikita Kucherov will be back with Point and Jake Guentzel while Conor Geekie will rejoin the second line. Gage Goncalves, who was recalled yesterday, skated on the third line with Nick Paul and Zemgus Girgensons.
Declan Carlile will also jump into the line-up with Emil Lilleberg serving the first of his two-game suspension.
The Lightning can’t relax now that they’re enjoying their own beds and some home-cooking. They have a nice stretch of winnable games heading into the 4 Nations Face-Off break, and if they put a little winning streak together, they can vault right back up the standings.
Potential Lines
Tampa Bay Lightning
Forwards:
Jake Guentzel | Brayden Point | Nikita Kucherov |
Brandon Hagel | Anthony Cirelli | Conor Geekie |
Zemgus Girgensons | Nick Paul | Gage Goncalves |
Mitchell Chaffee | Luke Glendening | Mikey Eyssimont |
Defense:
Victor Hedman | Darren Raddysh |
Ryan McDonagh | Erik Cernak |
Declan Carlille | Nick Perbix |
Goaltenders:
Andrei Vasilevskiy |
Jonas Johansson |
Chicago Blackhawks
Forwards:
Frank Nazar | Conor Bedard | Tyler Bertuzzi |
Teuvo Teravainen | Jason Dickinson | Ilya Mikheyev |
Landon Slaggert | Lukas Reichel | Nick Foligno |
Pat Maroon | Ryan Donato | Phillip Kurashev |
Defense:
Alec Martinez | Seth Jones |
Alex Vlasic | Louis Crevier |
Ethan Del Mastro | T.J. Brodie |
Goaltenders:
Arvid Soderblom |
Peter Mrazek |