Montreal Canadiens at Tampa Bay Lightning: GAME #70
Time: 7:00 pm Eastern Time
Location: Amalie Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: BSSUN, TVAS, City, SNE, HULU, ESPN+
Opponent SBNation Site: Eyes on the Prize
Preview:
In the middle of an almost baseball-like series against the New Jersey Devils this week, the Tampa Bay Lightning are back at Amalie Arena with the first game of their back-to-back this weekend against the Montreal Canadiens. This game also coincides with the Lightning Alumni Weekend, which introduced the Lightning’s new Hall of Fame and the Canadiens head coach, Martin St. Louis (as well as their special advisor to hockey operations Vincent Lecavalier), is one of the first-ever inductees.
This week the Bolts posted two consecutive wins for the first time since mid-February. The team also managed to do that on the road, where the Lightning are less successful this season. Their underlying numbers in those two games, however, weren’t very great as the Devils mostly controlled the play, but the Bolts converted on the chances they had. The Bolts also have to revitalize their power play, which scored just one goal over the last four games, despite having nine opportunities during this span.
In the year 2023, the once very spicy argument about who won the Mikhail Sergachev/Jonathan Drouin trade has almost outlived itself. Sergachev emerged as one of the Lightning leaders on the blue line and signed a huge $8.5 million contract last summer. This year he already surpassed his career-high with 51 points in 67 games and now just two points shy from tying Drouin’s career-high in points. Over the last six games, Sergachev scored nine assists, including four multiple assists games. Jonathan Drouin’s career however was damaged by several injuries he suffered over the years, the result of which he has never played more than 46 games in a single season over the last four years.
On top of that Drouin missed a team meeting ahead of their game against the Lightning and it’s still not certain if he will play tonight. If Drouin’s missing tonight’s game, the Habs have only 11 forwards with them on the road. The main topic for the Canadiens this season is their issues with injuries. The list of currently injured players is quiet impressive, but in a bad way, amongst those players are Joel Armia, Paul Byron, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans, Brendan Gallagher, Jordan Harris, Sean Monahan, Juraj Slafkovský and Arber Xhekaj, which is more than a half of their roster. That list might also include Kaiden Guhle, who missed the last practice due to a therapy day.
Not a surprise that with those issues the Habs are currently at the bottom of the league with 60 points in 69 games. They’re 2-6-2 in their last 10 games and allowed 21 goals over their last three contests. Their last game was 5-9 loss against the Florida Panthers, where the Habs allowed seven goals during the first period only.
This year the Bolts have a perfect 2-0-0 record against the Canadiens. In those two games the Lightning outscored their opponents 9-2. The season finale against the Canadiens will be in just three days on Tuesday. when the Bolts will visit them at Centre Bell.
Comparison chart:
Montreal Canadiens at Tampa Bay Lightning Comparison
| Game # 70 | Tampa Bay Lightning | Montreal Canadiens |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Record | 41-22-6 | 27-36-6 |
| Home Record | 24-6-5 | 14-17-3 |
| Road Record | 17-16-1 | 13-19-3 |
| Goals For | 238 | 191 |
| Goals Against | 208 | 255 |
| xGF | 236.74 | 182.33 |
| xGA | 218.95 | 257.95 |
| PP% | 25.5% | 16.3% |
| PK% | 79.8% | 72.5% |
Tampa Bay Lightning Potential Lines
Forward Lines
Brandon Hagel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Ross Colton – Steven Stamkos – Nick Paul
Tanner Jeannot – Anthony Cirelli – Alex Killorn
Pat Maroon – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Corey Perry
Defense Pairings
Victor Hedman – Nick Perbix
Mikhail Sergachev – Darren Raddysh
Ian Cole – Erik Cernak
Goaltenders
Brian Elliott
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Montreal Canadiens Potential Lines
Forward Lines
Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Nick Suzuki – Jesse Ylonen
Denis Gurianov - Jonathan Drouin (?) – Josh Anderson
Rem Pitlick - Chris Tierney – Mike Hoffman
Michael Pezzetta – Alex Belzile – Anthony Richard
Defense Pairings
Mike Matheson - Johnny Kovacevic
Kaiden Guhle – David Savard
Joel Edmundson – Justin Barron
Goaltenders
Samuel Montembeault
Jake Allen
