Game #15: Carolina Hurricanes (8-6-0) at Tampa Bay Lightning (6-4-4)
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Location: Amalie Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: BSSUN, , BSSO, ESPN+,
Opponent’s Site: Category Five Hockey
Preview
Let’s start today’s preview off with a little quiz. Who said the following?
“It starts with our compete level up and down the lineup. We’ve got to be a little better. Sometimes the intention might be there, but the execution is not there…”
A. Jon Cooper following the Lightning loss to Chicago
B. Sebastian Aho following the Hurricanes loss to Florida
C. Connor McDavid following the Oilers loss to the Sharks (and you thought it was tough to be a Bolts fan right now)
The answer was….. B. Sebastian Aho.
So it’s not just the Lightning that are having issues putting out a full effort all game long.
Carolina comes into town tonight on the heels of a 5-2 loss to the Florida Panthers which snapped a streak of pretty good play. Since losing to the Lightning on October 24th, the ‘Canes won five of their next six games prior to the loss to Florida. That stretch boosted them up to second place in the Metropolitan standings, a far cry from where they were when these two teams met a couple of weeks ago.
Still, they are far from a perfect team. While they are still the Corsi Kings of the NHL, they have had a little trouble translating that into goals at even strength. Since leaving Amalie at the end of October, Carolina has averaged just 1.9 goals per game at 5v5, which is 29th in the league. They’ve managed to win a few due to the fact there also allowing just 1.9 5v5 goals per game over that stretch, and their power play is a respectable 22.9%.
Due to their struggles up front, they are mixing and matching their lines recently as they try and find the right consistency. During their last visit to Tampa, the Lightning did a pretty good job of limiting Carolina’s dangerous chances, but they also faced a line-up that didn’t have Andrei Svechnikov while Sebastian Aho was returning from an injury. Aho has always been troublesome against the Bolts with 17 points (7 goals, 10 assists) in 27 career games against them. Of course, we all know the real pain in the Lightning’s side is Martin Necas who has 7 goals and 8 assists in 18 games against them in his career.
Defensively, the ‘Canes are still one of the deepest teams in the roster and they got Brett Pesce back last game, allowing them to scratch Tony DeAngelo. For as much credit as they get for being a high-octane offense, they’ve actually been really strong at limiting scoring chances, allowing just 24.34 per 60 minutes, the third best mark in the league.
That means the Lightning are going to have to work to generate offense tonight. After a stretch of games against some defensively porous teams, they have a challenge ahead. Hopefully, knowing that going into the game will have them competing at their best all night long. As we’ve mentioned throughout the season, they haven’t had that many bad games. They’ve had bad periods or bad 10-minute stretches, which has allowed them to let games get out of hand, but in regards to a truly bad 60 minutes of hockey, that’s been rare.
They have been better at generating dangerous chances over their most recent stretch of play, and if they can get someone outside of the insanely-hot Nikita Kucherov to start burying the chances, they should be able to string some wins together and get out of this funk.
Stats Match-up
| Game #15 | Tampa Bay Lightning | Carolina Hurricanes |
| Overall Record | 6-4-4 | 8-6-0 |
| Home Record | 4-1-2 | 4-0-0 |
| Road Record | 2-3-2 | 4-6-0 |
| Goals For | 53 | 47 |
| Goals Against | 50 | 49 |
| xGF | 46.55 | 46.13 |
| xGA | 45.37 | 41.19 |
| Power Play | 33.3% | 25% |
| Penalty Kill | 86.4% | 76.9% |
Lines
Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines
Forwards
Brandon Hagel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Steven Stamkos – Nick Paul – Alex Barré-Boulet
Tanner Jeannot – Anthony Cirelli – Michael Eyssimont
Tyler Motte – Luke Glendening – Waltteri Merelä
Defenders
Victor Hedman – Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev – Darren Raddysh
Calvin de Haan – Nick Perbix
Goalies
Jonas Johansson
Matt Tomkins
Carolina Hurricanes Projected Lines
Forwards
Seth Jarvis – Sebastian Aho – Martin Necas
Andrei Svechnikov – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Teuvo Teravainen
Jordan Martinook – Jordan Staal – Jesper Fast
Michael Bunting – Jack Drury – Stefan Noesen
Defenders
Jaccob Slavin – Brent Burns
Brady Skjei – Brett Pesce
Dmitry Orlov – Jalen Chatfield
Goalies
Pytor Kochetkov
Antti Raanta
Question of the Night
Will Waltteri Merelä record his first goal tonight?
