Game Thirty: St. Louis Blues (15-15-3) at Tampa Bay Lightning (17-10-2)
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Location: Amalie Arena, Tampa
TV/Stream/Radio: FDSNSUN, FDSNMW, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App
Odds: Lightning -218
The last time the Tampa Bay Lightning took the ice, they had a really solid 40 minutes of hockey. Honestly, they had a solid 45 minutes of hockey. They did, in their coach’s words, “screw around” for about 15 minutes at the beginning of the third period which allowed the Columbus Blue Jackets to score three goals. Luckily, the Bolts had build a four-goal lead at the time and they were able to right the ship in time to finish the game with a 5-3 win.
With those two points in hand the Lightning move on to face the St. Louis Blues before a home-and-home set with the Florida Panthers this weekend. The focus tonight should be on playing with the pace and responsibility they displayed in the first two periods against the Blue Jackets. With the way St. Louis is struggling on offense recently, an early multi-goal lead for the Lightning could be tough for the visitors to overcome.
The Blues team that is making their only visit to Amalie Arena tonight is a bit different than the one that defeated the Lightning 3-2 back in early November. Shortly after that game, St. Louis hit the skids, losing six of their next seven games. That slump cost old friend Drew Bannister his job as their head coach and the Blues were more than happy to scoop up Jim Montgomery to lead the team.
Montgomery, who had been dismissed from the Bruins a few days before, has helped turn the defense around as the Blues have been allowing fewer 5v5 goals since he’s been in charge. Since the 25th of November they have allowed just 13 in 10 games. They’ve gone 6-2-2 in those games despite scoring just 19 5v5 goals of their own. During that stretch their special teams have been, well, not the best as they’re successful on 16% of their power plays and 77.8% of their penalty kills.
They’ve also had some personnel changes aside from the head coach. Cam Fowler was brought in to help with the defense while P.O. Joseph was sent to Pittsburgh just yesterday.
As for the Lightning, J.J. Moser is still out and the status of Anthony Cirelli is uncertain. He was not on the ice for practice yesterday, which was listed as a maintenance day for him. Conor Geekie had slid to the middle of the second line in his spot with Cameron Atkinson skating on the wing. Since the morning skate was optional today, we’ll have to wait until warm-ups to see if Cirelli, who missed a part of Tuesday’s game is good to go.
Throughout their recent stretch of play, the Lightning have been firing on as many cylinders as we’ve seen over the past few years. They’re getting contributions up and down the line-up, killing penalties, scoring on the power play, and with the occasional exception, playing committed defense. If they can do that again tonight, it’ll go a long way to picking up two more points.
Potential Lines:
Tampa Bay Lightning
Forwards:
Jake Guentzel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli (?) – Conor Geekie
Gage Goncalves – Nick Paul – Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons – Luke Glendening – Mikey Eyssimont
Defense:
Victor Hedman – Darren Raddysh
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Nick Perbix
Goaltenders:
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
St. Louis Blues
Forwards:
Jake Neighbours – Robert Thomas – Pavel Buchnevich
Alexey Toropchenko – Brayden Schenn – Jordan Kyrou
Dylan Holloway – Oskar Sundqvist – Zack Bolduc
Brandon Saad – Nathan Walker – Mathieu Joseph
Defense:
Cam Fowler – Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg – Justin Faulk
Ryan Suter – Scott Perunovich
Goaltenders:
Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer
