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Lightning at Avalanche: Tampa Bay embarks on a big road trip

Feb 15, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; Colorado Avalanche goaltender Justus Annunen (60) defends the puck from Tampa Bay Lightning center Anthony Cirelli (71) during the first period at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports

Game 10: Tampa Bay Lightning (6-3-0) at Colorado Avalanche (5-5-0)

Time: 9:00 PM EST

Location: Ball Arena

TV/Stream/Radio: FDSNSUN, ALT, ESPN+, 102.5 FM

Odds: Lightning -118

It’s not quite late-night Lightning hockey, but make sure you’re stocked up on the caffeine for tomorrow morning. After a nice finish to the home stand, the Bolts will take their act on the road for the second time this season.Tonight’s game against Colorado will be followed up with ones against Minnesota, Winnipeg, and St. Louis.

Their first road trip was a tad bit bumpy as they forgot to pack their defense, allowing 15 goals in three games as they went 1-2. The first two games, losses to Ottawa and Toronto, were lackluster at best. and while they did manage a win against New Jersey, it wasn’t the prettiest.

A 4-2 loss against Minnesota when they returned home was better, and they followed that game up with solid wins against Washington and Minnesota. Early in the season, the pattern is obvious, solid defense at home, less-than-optimal defense on the road.

HomeAway
Goals Against/60 (5v5)1.223.25
xGA/60 (5v5)2.042.78
Scoring chances against/60 (5v5)21.2527.93
High Danger Chances against/60 (5v5)9.0411.37
Save Percentage.953%.885%
Penalty Kill75%68.8%

The good news is that, offensively, they’ve been fine on the road and at home. They just have to find a way to get the simple, clean defensive game that they play at home to translate to their road games. This trip in particular will be a test as they face some pretty solid competition.

Colorado’s locker room might currently resemble a hospital, but they’ve still managed to string together five wins out of their last six games. Their latest injuries include old friend Ross Colton, who had eight goals on the season, and Miles Wood. They join Artturi Lehkonen, Jonathan Drouin, Gabe Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin, and Tucker Poolman on the sidelines.

Cale Makar (17 points) and Nathan MacKinnon (16 points) are doing the heavy lifting as usual. It also helps that the power play is clicking at a cool 36.4% so far this season. So, the best bet for the Lightning tonight would be to stay out of the penalty box.

After that it’s Minnesota, and we’ve seen the style of game that they play already. Winnipeg finally lost, but they’re still 8-1 on the season. St. Louis lost their last two, but throttled Toronto 5-1 a few days ago. In short, this is not an easy road trip.

Tampa Bay Lightning – Morning Skate

Forwards

Jake Guentzel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov

Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Conor Geekie

Mikey Eyssimont – Nick Paul – Mitchell Chaffee

Zemgus Girgensons – Luke Glendening – Cam Atkinson

Defense

Victor Hedman – JJ Moser

Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak

Emil Lilleberg – Nick Perbix/Darren Raddysh

Goaltender

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Colorado Avalanche

Ivan Ivan – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen

Nikolai Kovalenko – Casey Mittelstadt – Logan O’Connor

T.J. Tynan – Parker Kelly – Joel Kiviranta

Chris Wagner – Matthew Stienberg – Oliver Kylington

Defense

Devon Toews – Cale Makar

Samuel Girard – Josh Manson

Calvin de Haan – Sam Malinski

Goaltender

Kaapo Kahkonen

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