Lightning at Devils Preview and Game Day Thread

Game Six: Tampa Bay Lightning (3-2) at New Jersey Devils (5-2-1)

Time: 6:45 PM

Place: Prudential Center

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

Odds: Lightning +130

The Tampa Bay Lightning limp into the Prudential Center tonight in hopes of salvaging at least a few points from their three-game road trip. Standing in their way is one of the hottest teams in the league in the New Jersey Devils. The Lightning have always been pretty good at turning the pages on bad losses, and they’ll need to do that tonight.

If we rewind to a few days ago, things were going fairly well for the Lightning. Prior to the weekend they were sitting pretty with a 3-0 record, strong goaltending, and productive 5v5 play. That all went away with back-to-back losses to Ottawa and Toronto. They surrendered 10 goals over the two games, struggled on special teams, and saw their top netminder yanked midway through the second period. It’s funny how fast this game can turn on you.

It’s roller-coaster rides like this that Coach Cooper is constantly preaching against. Teams in the midst of an endless regular season can’t afford to get too high or too low based on individual outcomes. That’s for us fans to do. What the Lightning need to focus on is executing the fundamentals of their game plan. If they can get back to doing that tonight, then it won’t be a total wash of a road trip.

Ottawa and Toronto took advantage of some careless puck play from the Lightning. Turnovers led to more than a fair share of goals, and dampened the offense by forcing the top lines to spend too much time defending and not enough time attacking. Throw in some costly penalties and average goaltending and that’s how two listless losses can throw water on an otherwise strong start to the season.

Now, the Lightning are faced with finding their game against a team that has posted one of the better records so far. The Devils are 5-2-1 on the young season, but there is some doubt on if they’ve beaten anybody “good” yet. Their wins so far are against Buffalo (x2), Washington, Utah, and Ottawa. Meanwhile they lost in regulation to Toronto and Carolina and are coming off an overtime loss to Washington.

Wins are wins in this league and it’s a fine line that separates the “good” teams from the “bad” teams. There are few if no juggernauts and there aren’t as many teams tanking for draft picks as some in the media might want you to believe. Most of the league is in the comfy middle somewhere squabbling back and forth for whatever points are available on a nightly basis. To New Jersey’s credit, they’ve claimed more points than they’ve conceded, so good for them.

Oddly enough, their 5v5 play has been pretty similar to the Lightning’s overall so far this season:

One main difference is that their penalty kill has been strong (90.5%) and, while they might be average on the power play (20.7%), it’s a lot better than the Lightning’s (13.6%). Paul Cotter has been a bit of a surprise for them offensively as he’s potted 5 goals in 8 games while Nico Hischier has 8 points (5 goals, 3 assists). Jacob Markstrom has been solid in net with a .902 SV% and a 2.99 GAA in his first season with the team.

Considering that two big pieces of their defense in Brett Pesce and Luke Hughes have not played yet this season (and probably won’t tonight), the fact that they’ve racked up as many points as they have is rather commendable.

The Bolts will have their work cut out for them, but while this trip might be a bust, if they can get back to the basics they were executing at the beginning of the season, it’ll be a good building block for their next stretch of games.