Lightning at Devils Preview: A road trip hits different when you win the first game

Game #60 – Tampa Bay Lightning at New Jersey Devils
Time: 1:00 PM EST
Location: Prudential Center
Broadcast/Streaming: TNT, MAX, SN1, TVAS, MSGSN

Opponent’s Site: All About the Jersey

Preview

There is something nice about winning the first game of a road trip. It gets things off to a good start and a team isn’t chasing points the rest of the way. The Tampa Bay Lightning are on a three-game road trip that stops in Newark today for them to take on the New Jersey Devils. Less than 24 hours ago, they defeated the New York Islanders, 4-2, to pick up two very needed points. If we hold true to Coach Cooper’s belief that a successful road trip is defined by hoovering up more points than games played, the Lightning now have two shots to make that happen – today against the Devils or Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers.

That’s much better than needing to win the last two games of the series in order to make it successful. Granted, with the way the race is tightening up as the season pulls to a close, the Lightning are in the camp where all six points would be best for them right now. However, they can’t get ahead of themselves just yet.

The Devils are right behind them in the Wild Card Race, so today is a four-point game. The Lightning have a five-point lead on them entering today’s action, but New Jersey has two games in hand on them. So a win could push it to seven points and give the Bolts a little breathing room when they hit their quasi-spring break at the beginning of March. A loss cuts that lead to just three and makes things a little tight for comfort during the break.

Much like the Lightning, the Devils picked up a much-needed win as they defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 last night. That snapped a two-game losing streak that saw them outscored 11-3 by the Capitals and Rangers. Goaltending has been in short supply as an injury to Vitek Vanecek has forced Nico Daws into action for seven straight starts. Akira Schmid was recalled following the game, so it is likely he will make his first start since December 21st.

Offensively, the Devils have a pretty solid top two lines with Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes centering those lines. At 5v5 the team has been generating chances with an expected goals total of 131.3, which is second in the NHL. They haven’t been finishing them off at that high of a clip as their 125 actual goals scored at 5v5 is 8th in the league. Not shabby (and better than the Lightning’s 119), but with some of the talent on their team they should have a smaller gap between the two numbers.

If their 5v5 offense is solid, their power play has nose-dived. They did go 1-for-2 against the Habs, but that brings their numbers to just six for sixty-one since the calendar flipped to 2024, that’s a stunning (in a bad way) 9.84%. They should be better than that. Or the press should stop pressuring them about it.

It would be nice if they didn’t find their power play touch against the Lightning today. It would also be nice if the Lightning didn’t give them too many opportunities to try. One blemish on their win against the Islanders on Saturday night was that they were shorthanded five times. That’s too many times, especially on the road. The Lightning have been pretty good at killing penalties this year (80.5% success) and they’ve generally taken fewer than they have in the past, but if they want to stay in this playoff race, they can’t afford to keep heading to the sin bin.

Not only does it make it hard to win, it disrupts the flow of the game and keeps their best player, Nikita Kucherov, off of the ice. Speaking of Kucherov, he has a shot to be the first player to crack the 100 point barrier for the season today. That doesn’t win the team any extra points, but it would be nice.

Jonas Johansson will likely be in net today and looking to bounce back from his last two outings. In two games (one in relief) in February he has a 6.81 GAA and .719 SV% after allowing 9 goals on 32 shots. His team hasn’t been great in front of him, but he has to be better. He’s likely to only get two more starts as the Lightning have just two back-to-backs left after this one, but those four points could prove important down the stretch. He as to give them a chance to win when he’s between the pipes.

The Lightning went 11/7 yesterday and it allowed Coach Cooper to spot Nikita Kucherov throughout the line-up where he could get some favorable match-ups. If the Lightning can stay out of the box, perhaps Coach Cooper will do the same with Steven Stamkos in order to get him out of his 5v5 slump.

While The Captain’s numbers are solid on the season as a whole, he has relied a little too heavily on the power play for his goals. He has just two (!) 5v5 goals in his last 28 games and just 8 on the season total. Slipping him in with different combinations could get him going at even strength and take some of the pressure off of Kucherov, Brayden Point, and Brandon Hagel.

At this point, it doesn’t really matter who is scoring the goals, the Lightning just need more than the other teams that they play. Two wins on this trip will make it a pretty good trip, why not get it out of the way today?

Stats Match-up

Lines

Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines

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

Luke Glendening – Tyler Motte

Defenders
Victor Hedman – Darren Raddysh
Calvin de Haan – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Nick Perbix

Max Crozier

Goalies
Jonas Johansson

Andrei Vasilevskiy

These were the lines from last night. Chances are the Bolts go 11/7 again. There probably won’t be a morning skate, so we won’t know until the warm-ups.

New Jersey Devils Projected Lines

Forwards
Ondrej Palat – Nico Hischier – Dawson Mercer

Erik Haula – Jack Hughes – Jesper Bratt

Timo Meier – Chris Tierney – Tyler Toffoli

Brendan Smith – Curtis Lazar – Alexander Holtz

Defenders
Jonas Siegenthaler – John Marino

Kevin Bahl – Simon Nemec

Luke Hughes – Colin Miller

Goalies

Akira Schmid

Nico Daws

Lines are per Daily FaceOff. Will update them if we hear anything different, especially in regards to the goaltender.

The Playoff Race