Lightning at Bruins Preview: Winning in Boston will forever and always be fun

Game #54 – Tampa Bay Lightning (28-20-5) at Boston Bruins (32-11-5)
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Location: TD Garden
Broadcast/Streaming: BSSUN, NESN, Hulu, ESPN+,

Opponent’s Site: Stanley Cup of Chowder

Preview

The Tampa Bay Lightning haven’t exactly enjoyed success throughout their history of playing regular season games in Boston. Through 59 games they have a record of 11-38-6-4 scoring an average of 2.36 goals per game while surrendering 3.59 per game. Not great numbers. That’s why it’s fun when they do manage to beat the Bruins in their own house.

It has been awhile since they claimed victory at TD Garden. They’ve lost their last four trips up north, including the 7-3 beating in January before they started their latest winning binge. In fact, the last time the Lightning celebrated on Boston ice was on December 4th, 2021 when Steven Stamkos, who has his fair share of bad memories in Bean Town, scored in overtime to give the Lightning a 3-2 win. The game also featured Taylor Raddysh’s first career goal, which came shorthanded.

Snapping their current losing streak will take a similar effort, especially considering the Bruins are coming off of a rare home loss, this one to the Capitals. They were shut out by Charlie Lindgren so expect them to come out playing hard in front of the home fans.

The Bolts are looking to finish off their road trip with a win to head home with a 2-2 split, which considering how the trip started, wouldn’t be that bad. It would also cut the Bruins’ lead over them in the division to 10 points. It’s still a pretty good gap with less than 30 games to go, but not an impossible one.

Expect Andrei Vasilevskiy to be extra fired up considering the last time he was on this ice he gave up 6 goals on 25 shots against. Yes, the Lightning were blown out on the scoreboard, but it was one of those weird games where it was close for most of the night, but Boston ended up scoring three times in the third (including an empty-netter) to make it look uglier than it actually was. The Bolts had the better numbers at 5v5 posting 61.54% of the shot attempts, 62.5% of the scoring chances, and 52.% of the expected goals. Boston won the special teams battle with a power play goal and a short-handed goal, which help flipped the scoreboard.

The Lightning beat Columbus in their last outing on Saturday, but they still had a few moments where they were a little sloppy with the puck. After the game, Coach Cooper didn’t seem to want to dwell on the details, taking the win for what it was – a win. They will have to play better in their own zone because Boston is a team that will make you pay if you keep giving them chances. Look for quick, controlled breakouts from the Bolts, and better awareness with the puck in the offensive zone. Throwing blind passes to the middle of the ice from the boards will lead to a bad time.

Based on the lines at practice, the Lightning might have Tanner Jeannot back in the line-up. He was banged up the last time the Bolts played in Boston, playing just 5:54 before leaving the game. Chances are he’ll be pretty fired up if he is back on the ice and looking for a little retribution.

This is the first game in a stretch of three tough match-ups for the Bolts that continues at home against Colorado and Florida. Even with a couple of months to go, it could be a tipping point for the season. Win two out of three and there will be a hop in their step. Lose two or, god forbid, get swept, and things get bleak.

So why not make life easy and win the first one?

Stats Match-up

Lines

Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines

Forwards
Steven Stamkos – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Nick Paul
Mikey Eyssimont – Tyler Motte – Conor Sheary

Tanner Jeannot – Luke Glendening – Mitchell Chaffee

Defenders
Victor Hedman – Darren Raddysh
Haydn Fleury – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Nick Perbix

Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy

Jonas Johansson

Boston Bruins Projected Lines

Forwards
Brad Marchand – Charlie Coyle – David Pastrnak

Trent Frederic – Pavel Zacha – Jake DeBrusk

James Van Riemsdyk – Morgan Geekie – Anthony Richard

Jakub Lauko – Jesper Boqvist – Danton Heinen

Defenders
Matt Grzelcyk – Charlie McAvoy

Hampus Lindholm – Brandon Carlo

Derek Forbort – Parker Wortherspoon

Goalies

Jeremy Swayman

Linus Ullmark

The Playoff Race