Penguins at Lightning Preview and GDT: One more before they head west

Game #27: Pittsburgh Penguins (11-10-3) at Tampa Bay Lightning (11-10-5)
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Location: Amalie Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: BSSUN, ESPN+,

Opponent’s Site: PensBurgh

Preview

Since coming from behind to beat the Lightning about a week ago, the Penguins have lost twice, both times to their cross-state rivals, the Flyers. Both were single goal losses and the Pittsburgh power play went 0-for-8 while giving up a shorthanded goal. It really is inconceivable that a team with as much talent as they have is absolutely lost with an extra skater. Right now their 10.4% success rate is only better than two teams, the Washington Capitals and the St. Louis Blues.

That’s really their one glaring weakness. To be honest, all of their other stats having them being an above-average team that shouldn’t be fighting for a wild card spot with the Lightning (the are currently two points behind the Bolts with two games in hand).

When these two teams met last week, it was a game that played against type as the Lightning built a 2-goal lead in the first period, played alright down the stretch, but found themselves digging every mistake they made out of the back of the net as the Penguins scored three times off the rush before Tristan Jarry flung a puck into the empty net for an always pleasing goalie goal.

So, much like they had against the Stars, the Lightning will be looking for a little revenge as they play at home for the last time before embarking on a five-game road trip that will take them to Western Canada (stock up on the coffee and Red Bull, folks).

In their win against the Stars, we caught glimpses of the Lightning teams of yore. The ones that had Andrei Vasilevskiy bailing them out, their top line doing their thing, and building on a third-period lead instead of watching it evaporate into the humid night air.

The top line of Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, and Nikita Kucherov was absolutely smoking as they had a 14-3 edge in unblocked shot attempts, 11-3 edge in scoring chances, and 7-0 advantage in high-danger chances. That led to a ton of chances and one goal. It also meant the Stars spent most of the time in their own zone when the trio was on the ice. Give Coach Cooper credit for recognizing they were humming as he had them on the ice together for 11:12 of 5v5 time, more than 2 minutes more than any other line combination.

As good as they were, one of the key moments of the game came with the fourth line on the ice. Luke Glendening’s shot-block turned goal for the third Lightning tally of the night was a huge insurance goal for a team that has tossed two-goal leads away like they were ten-day-old shrimps stuck in the back of the fridge.

We’ve seen the Lightning do this a few times already this season. They’ve played a pretty decent game and given us hope that they’ve turned the corner only to spit the bit the next time out. At this point, they really can’t afford too many more false starts if they want to stay serious about their playoff hopes this season.

With a tough schedule coming up, it would behoove them to win tonight before heading west. All they need to do is work as hard as they did on Monday. Easy as pie, right?

Stats Match-up

Lines

Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines

Forwards
Steven Stamkos – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Michael Eyssimont
Tanner Jeannot – Nick Paul – Alex Barré-Boulet

Tyler Motte – Luke Glendening – Austin Watson

Defenders
Victor Hedman – Nick Perbix
Mikhail Sergachev – Erik Cernak
Calvin de Haan – Darren Raddysh

Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy

Jonas Johansson

Pittsburgh Penguins Projected Lines

Forwards
Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust

Reilly Smith – Evgeni Malkin – Drew O’Connor

Radim Zohorna – Lars Eller – Alex Nylander

Jansen Harkins – Joona Koppanen – Jeff Carter

Defenders
Ryan Graves – Kris LeTang

Marcus Pettersson – Erik Karlsson

Ryan Shea – John Ludvig

Goalies

Tristan Jarry

Alex Nedeljkovic

Question of the Night

Will Nikita Kucherov make it 11 games in a row with a point? Chances are likely.