Tampa Bay Lightning at Carolina Hurricanes Preview and Game Day Thread

Tampa Bay Lightning at Carolina Hurricanes: GAME#63

Time: 3:00 pm Eastern Time

Location: PNC Arena

Broadcast/Streaming: BSSO, SN360, TNT

Opponent SBNation Site: Canes Country

The Tampa Bay Lightning won’t have much time to rest after another disappointing loss on Saturday night, as they’re visiting the second-best team in the league and the leader of the Metropolitan Division — the Carolina Hurricanes this afternoon.

Jon Cooper sent a strong message to the team last night by benching his biggest stars Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos in the third period, after the team allowed five straight goals. The Lightning head coach was unhappy with the effort of his top players, who were directly responsible in couple of opponents goals. While they’re still able to record points consistently on almost every night, their defensive numbers have been quiet poor in the recent games. For example, with Steven Stamkos on the ice at five-on-five last night, the Buffalo Sabres had an enormous 84 percent of the expected goals last night.

Meanwhile, bringing in Tanner Jeannot and Michael Eyssimont at the trade deadline, seems to justified itself. Both players brought even more grittiness to the Lightning’s bottom-six and were involved in several clashes during the yesterday’s game, recording seven hits between them. Jeannot registered his first fight as a Bolt, sending Riley Stillman to the locker room after an uppercut. Jeannot also recorded two points in three games with the Lightning so far and becoming a regular player on the Lightning’s penalty kill, replacing there Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who was scratched yesterday for Eyssimont.

Erik Cernak remains day-to-day and will likely miss tonight’s game in Raleigh. Darren Raddysh is staying with the team, last night he played on a pair with Mikhail Sergachev, spending just a little over 12 minutes at 5-on-5. Andrei Vasilevskiy will return to the net after taking a rest last night. He has three losses in his last five starts.

Unlike the Lightning, the Canes had a day off yesterday, however, the team is returning from a quick trip from the western part of the USA, where they recorded a 6-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes and a 2-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. Over the last month and a half, the Canes have just three losses and currently leading the Metropolitan Division with 88 points in 60 games.

Carolina weren’t big buyers at this year’s trade deadline, but managed to acquire players, who should help them in playoffs run. They traded for Shayne Gostisbehere from the Coyotes, who is supposed to strengthen their power play and already scored his first goal for the new team in his first shift on power play. The Canes also acquired Jesse Puljujarvi from the Edmonton Oilers, who is still dealing with his work visa issues and is expected to make his debut for Carolina next week.

In their only meeting this season so far, the Canes defeated the Lightning 4-3 in overtime, despite Andrei Vasilevskiy recording season-high 52 saves in this game.

Tampa Bay Lightning at Carolina Hurricanes Comparison

Tampa Bay Lightning Potential Lines

Forward Lines

Brandon Hagel - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov

Steven Stamkos - Anthony Cirelli - Alex Killorn

Tanner Jeannot - Nick Paul - Corey Perry

Michael Eyssimont - Ross Colton - Pat Maroon

Defense Pairings

Victor Hedman - Zach Bogosian

Mikhail Sergachev - Darren Raddysh

Ian Cole - Nick Perbix

Goaltenders

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Brian Elliott

Carolina Hurricanes Potential Lines

Forward Lines

Andrei Svechnikov - Sebastian Aho - Seth Jarvis

Teuvo Teravainen - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Martin Necas

Jordan Martinook - Jordan Staal - Jesper Fast

Stefan Noesen - Paul Stastny - Derek Stepan

Defense Pairings

Jaccob Slavin - Brent Burns

Brady Skjei - Brett Pesce

Shayne Gostisbehere - Jalen Chatfield

Goaltenders

Frederik Andersen

Antti Raanta