Game Thirteen: Tampa Bay Lighting (7-5-0) at St. Louis Blues (6-6-0)
Time: 8:00 PM EST
Location: Enterprise Center
TV/Stream/Radio: FDSNSUN, FDSNMW, ESPN+, 102.5 FM
Odds: Lightning -166
After the road trip started with a promising win against the Colorado Avalanche, the Tampa Bay Lightning encountered a couple speed bumps as they dropped games to the Minnesota Wild and Winnipeg Jets. While losing any game isn’t groovy, the most annoying part of both games is that they were tied heading into the third period. In a season where the Lightning have been pretty strong at closing out games, they weren’t able to find the extra gear needed to pull out some needed wins.
Of course, there is also the fact that their number one center left after just six shifts in their last outing. Oh, and one of their top-four defenseman also left a game earlier after getting run into the boards against the Avalanche. So they’re a little banged up and would like nothing more than to get home and enjoy a day off in their own beds.
The Lightning opted not to practice yesterday so, as of right now, there is no update on Brayden Point. There also haven’t been any roster moves yet, so there is a chance that Point is good to go for tonight. If he’s not, the Bolts could also go with an 11/7 line-up with Anthony Cirelli popping up to the top line for the night. Not having Point in the line-up would be a big blow to the offense as he is up to his usual high-production with 13 points (8 goals, 5 assists). He’s been really rolling as of late with a five-game point streak that includes back-to-back games with power play goals.
One of the “highlights” of the trip is that the power play has shown some signs of life, going 3-for-9 overall, but all 3 of those goals have come in the last two games. Perhaps the Lightning have started to figure things out with the extra skater. If it is a trend and not an anomaly then that’s one more added weapon they have on the season.
The Blues aren’t feeling sorry for the Lightning’s potential injury woes and they are looking at trainer’s room filled with important players. Torey Krug and Robert Thomas are on injured reserve while Nick Leddy, Mathieu Joseph, Kasperi Kapanen, and Philip Broberg are all day-to-day. Those are some pretty big skates to fill and the Blues are off to a wobbling start. They do have a pair of wins against Toronto sandwiched around losses to Philadelphia, Ottawa, and Montreal.
They are middle of the road in the league in defense with a 3.17 goals against per game, but the offense has really struggled as they are averaging just 2.67 goals per game. The power play is scuffling along at 13.3% while they are killing off 76.5% of their penalties against.
This is a winnable game for the Lightning, and a win would sooth a lot of the bumps and bruises they’ve suffered along the road trip.
Tampa Bay Lightning Potential Lines
Forwards
Jake Guentzel – Brayden Point (?) – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Conor Geekie
Mikey Eyssimont – Nick Paul – Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons – Luke Glendening – Cam Atkinson
Defense
Victor Hedman – JJ Moser
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Nick Perbix/Darren Raddysh
Goaltender:
Andrei Vasilevskiy
St. Louis Blues Potential Lines
Forwards
Brandon Saad – Pavel Buchnevich – Jake Nieghbors
Dylan Holloway – Brayden Schenn – Jordan Kyrou
Alexey Toropchenko – Radek Faksa – Zack Bolduc
Alexandre Texier – Oskar Sundqvist – Nathan Walker
Defense
Ryan Suter – Colton Parayko
Pierre-Olivier Joseph – Justin Faulk
Scott Perunovich – Matthew Kessel
Goaltender
Jordan Binnington
