Tampa Bay Lightning at Vancouver Canucks preview: Time to start another win streak!

Tampa Bay Lightning at Vancouver Canucks: GAME 35

Time: 10:00 pm Eastern Time

Location: Rogers Place

Broadcast/Streaming: SunS, SNP

Opponent SBNation Site: Nucks Misconduct

Preview:

The Tampa Bay Lightning arrive in Vancouver after having their eight-game win streak snapped with a 5-4 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets. After playing two of the league’s better teams in the Jets and the Toronto Maple Leafs, tonight’s game will provide a bit of relief for the Lightning, but the Canucks are not to be underestimated. Vancouver has won five of their last six games, and their one loss came in overtime to the Nashville Predators. The Canucks are undefeated on their current homestand look to continue that trend against the Lightning.

Tampa Bay, meanwhile, got Anton Stralman back from injury against Winnipeg and looked solid against the Jets. Their powerplay has been lights-out as of late, climbing to 2nd in the league and scoring at least one powerplay goal in their last four games. They also have the most powerplay goals (36) in the entire league. Playing against a weaker shorthanded team in the Canucks should further their success on the man-advantage. However, turnovers and allowing late-in-period goals proved detrimental for the Bolts, as the Jets climbed back from  three separate one-goal deficits in their eventual win.

Stralman’s return has forced Erik Cernak to the pressbox, but Jon Cooper was quick to confirm that Cernak will see games on this road trip. Cernak was still paired with Slater Koekkoek at Monday’s practice, so it may not be tonight. Mathieu Joseph was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury he sustained against Colorado, which allows the Lightning to carry eight defensemen for now.

The Canucks haven’t had much injury trouble as of late; Sven Baertschi sustained a concussion back in late October, and Brandon Sutter separated his shoulder around the same time and won’t return until after Christmas. They traded for Josh Leivo and have gone 5-1-1 since acquiring him. Leivo has three goals with the Canucks and went from a permanent fourth-liner in Toronto to playing on a line with Elias Petterson and Brock Boeser. Vancouver can get scoring from all four of their lines; they have twelve players with ten or more points and four players over 20.

Yes, the Canucks have the ability to score, but there is no higher-scoring team in the NHL right now than the Lightning. On top of their lethal powerplay, the Lightning have seven players with over 20 points on the season (one of which is Ryan McDonagh) and two players over 40. They’ve scored at least three goals a night in their last nine games and ended their winning streak with 41 goals in eight games. It should be a fast-paced, offense-driven game that will hopefully keep most of us watching on the east coast awake.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Forwards

Ondrej Palat - Steven Stamkos - Yanni Gourde

Tyler Johnson - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov

Alex Killorn - Anthony Cirelli - J.T. Miller

Adam Erne - Cedric Paquette - Ryan Callahan

Scratched: Danick Martel

Injured: Mathieu Joseph

Defense

Victor Hedman - Dan Girardi

Ryan McDonagh - Anton Stralman

Braydon Coburn - Mikhail Sergachev

Scratched: Slater Koekkoek, Erik Cernak

Goalies

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Louis Domingue

Vancouver Canucks

Forwards

Antoine Roussel - Bo Horvat - Loui Eriksson

Josh Leivo - Elias Petterson - Brock Boeser

Nikolay Goldobin - Adam Gaudette - Jake Virtanen

Markus Granlund - Jay Beagle - Tyler Motte

Scratched: Tim Schaller

Injured: Sven Baertschi, Brandon Sutter

Defense

Alexander Edler - Chris Tanev

Ben Hutton - Erik Gudbranson

Derrick Pouliot - Troy Stetcher

Scratched: Michael Del Zotto, Alex Biega

Goalies

Jacob Markstrom

Anders Nilsson