New York Islanders at Tampa Bay Lightning: GAME# 6
Time: 7:00 pm Eastern Time
Location: Amalie Arena Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: BSSUNX, MSGSN
DraftKings Line: Lightning -1.5 O/U 6.0
Opponent SBNation Site: Lighthouse Hockey
Preview:
The Tampa Bay Lightning earned their second win of the season by beating the Florida Panthers on Friday night. The victory against a solid playoff team like the Panthers might seem like a turning point for the Lightning, however if we look closer at the Lightning’s stats, we can see that their problems still haven’t disappeared.
The Bolts are still struggling at 5-on-5. The Panthers dominated them in the first two period of yesterday’s game and the Lightning managed to even the things out only by the third period. The top line of Hagel, Point and Kucherov looked better than everyone else, posting 77.51 xGF%, but still couldn’t convert it into actual goals. According to Evolving-Hockey.com, the Lightning have 39.24 GF% at 5-on-5 overall this season, being the fourth worst team in the league in this category.
The power play has been so far the most dangerous weapon of the Lightning this season. Yesterday, the Bolts scored two more power play goals, improving to 31.82 PP%, ranking fourth in the league. Steven Stamkos has been an anchor of that power play unit, tallying five of his seven goals on the power play. Nikita Kucherov, who has a goal drought since the start of the season, also recorded five of his seven points on power play.
Andrei Vasilevskiy has been the second best player on the Lightning’s roster so far. Despite suffering two losses this season, he still has a strong 2.85 GSAx record. Yesterday he stopped 36 of the opponent’s 38 shots.
The New York Islanders have the similar problems at 5-on-5 so far. The Isles are 29th in the league with 41.87 xGF% so far. They’re currently 2-2-0 through the start of the season, coming off a 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils, where the Isles were heavily outshot 41-17. Anders Lee currently leads the team with five points, while Oliver Wahlstrom’s three goals is the best result on this team. The best players of the team are their goaltenders: despite a pretty big workload, both Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov has strong numbers, especially Sorokin, who tops the league with 5.95 GSAx so far.
The Lightning are returning to Amalie Arena for their second game in two days. Don’t expect a longer home stint though, as the Bolts are going on a California trip after tonight’s game.
Tampa Bay vs New York Comparison
| Game # 6 | Tampa Bay Lightning | New York Islanders |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Record | 2-3-0 | 2-2-0 |
| Home Record | 0-1-0 | 2-2-0 |
| Road Record | 2-2-0 | 0-0-0 |
| Goals For | 13 | 14 |
| Goals Against | 16 | 10 |
| xGF | 15.66 | 13.66 |
| xGA | 19.44 | 16.05 |
| PP% | 31.8% | 8.3% |
| PK% | 79% | 100% |
Tampa Bay Lightning
Forward Lines
Brandon Hagel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn – Steven Stamkos – Vlad Namestnikov
Ross Colton – Nick Paul – Corey Perry
Pat Maroon – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Cole Koepke
Defense Pairings
Victor Hedman – Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev – Nick Perbix
Ian Cole – Philippe Myers
Goaltenders
Brian Elliott
Andrei Vasilevskiy
New York Islanders
Forward Lines
Anthony Beauvillier – Mathew Barzal – Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee – Brock Nelson – Oliver Wahlstrom
Zach Parise – Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Josh Bailey
Matt Martin- Casey Cizikas – Cal Clutterbuck
Defense Pairings
Alex Romanov – Noah Dobson
Adam Pelech – Ryan Pulock
Robin Salo – Scott Mayfield
Goaltenders
Ilya Sorokin
Semyon Varlamov
