Game #22: Tampa Bay Lightning (10-6-5) at Colorado Avalanche (14-6-0)
Time: 9:00 PM EST
Location: Ball Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: BSSUN, ESPN+,
Opponent’s Site: Puck Yeti
Preview
The Lightning head to the mountains for the second part of their three-game road trip (with two days off between games, they returned home from Carolina after the 8-2 victory) and the first of a back-to-back with the Colorado Avalanche and Arizona Coyotes. First up are the Avs and their Central Division-leading 28 points.
It’s been a streaky season for the Avalanche as they started off with six straight wins, then lost five of their next seven. Now they’re on a run of winning six out of seven. As has been the case since they beat the Lightning in the Stanley Cup, they’ve been successful despite dealing with a lot of injuries. Right now they are without their starting goaltender (Pavel Francouz), their captain (Gabriel Landeskog), depth forward (Artturi Lehkonen), and a top-four defenseman (Samuel Girard).
Good thing they still have Cale Makar (30 points in 20 games), Nathan MacKinnon (26 points in 20 games), and Mikko Rantanen (12 goals in 20 games) to keep things rolling. They may rely on their top line of MacKinnon, Rantanen, and Valeri Nichushkin a little more than they have in the past, but they’re still managing to find ways to win. New additions Ryan Johansen and Ross Colton have provided depth down the middle as they each have 7 goals on the season.
In net, Alexandar Georgiev has provided a steady hand with a 2.95 GAA despite a .892 SV%. Ivan Prosvetov was claimed on waivers during training camp and has provided more than capable goaltending during his starts with a 2.35 GAA and .919 SV%.
Their team defense has been solid in front of their goaltenders as they’re a top-five team in shot attempts against, shots against, and scoring chances against. So it’s going to be another game where the Lightning are going to have to be responsible in their own zone first, and then worry about generating offense.
While it hasn’t been pretty, the Lightning are starting to put things together defensively. In four of their last five games they’ve held their opponents under 20 scoring chances at 5v5. In those games, they’ve also allowed less than 10 high-danger chances.
If they can keep that trend going, and Andrei Vasilevskiy is truly back in regular-season form, there is a chance that this team can put a nice streak of wins together and separate themselves from the pack a bit. Riding an insanely hot Nikita Kucherov is good for right now, but they’ll also have to make sure they’re getting production from everyone.
The Bolts have had a lot of success against the Western Conference over the last two seasons going 26-10-2. A couple of more wins on this road trip would do well to pad that number and help them in the standings.
Stats Match-up
| Game #22 | Tampa Bay Lightning | Colorado Avalanche |
| Overall Record | 10-6-5 | 14-6-0 |
| Home Record | 6-2-3 | 7-2-0 |
| Road Record | 4-4-2 | 7-4-0 |
| Goals For | 78 | 76 |
| Goals Against | 74 | 58 |
| xGF | 68.29 | 69.01 |
| xGA | 67.19 | 55.35 |
| Power Play | 34.7% | 19.8% |
| Penalty Kill | 84.4% | 87.5% |
Lines
Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines
Forwards
Brandon Hagel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Steven Stamkos – Anthony Cirelli – Mikey Eyssimont
Tanner Jeannot – Nick Paul – Tyler Motte
Cole Koepke – Luke Glendening – Austin Watson
Defenders
Victor Hedman – Nick Perbix
Mikhail Sergachev – Erik Cernak
Calvin de Haan – Darren Raddysh
Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
Colorado Avalanche Projected Lines
Forwards
Valeri Nichushkin – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen
Tomas Tatar – Ryan Johansen – Jonathan Drouin
Miles Wood – Ross Colton – Logan O’Connor
Andrew Cogliano – Fredrik Olofsson – Joel Kiviranta
Defenders
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Bowen Byram – Josh Manson
Jack Johnson – Caleb Jones
Goalies
Ivan Prosvetov
Alexandar Georgiev
Question of the Night
Which one of the ExBolts will score tonight?
