Tampa Bay Lightning @ Winnipeg Jets: Game #47
Time: 8:00 pm Eastern Time
Location: Bell MTS Place — Winnipeg, Manitoba
Broadcast/Streaming: Fox Sports Sun, TSN 3
Opponent SBNation Site: Arctic Ice Hockey
Last night, the Tampa Bay Lightning looked tired. They’ve been on an adrenaline high for the past month or so, rampaging through the NHL all the way up to second place in the Atlantic Division. But all that hard work has come at a cost and this team looks more than ready to sleep on the plane to somewhere warm and sunny.
Hedman said postgame they have to “empty the tank” tomorrow against Winnipeg. Try to create a little more separation before the bye week.
— Caley Chelios (@CaleyChelios) January 17, 2020
Tonight, the Bolts are in Canada to play the Winnipeg Jets. This is the second game of a back-to-back, the third game in four days, plus travel. It’s not a game you expect much out of, but Andrei Vasilevskiy will be in net. Hopefully he can steal one here.
The Winnipeg Jets are somewhat similar to the Minnesota Wild, whom the Lightning played last night, in results only. They’re in about the same place in the standings, their shot share and offense is about the same in terms of power, but the big difference has been in the defense quality and goaltending.
The Jets are bad defensively. There’s no two ways about it, but they’ve been able to maintain a good goal differential and be competitive in the weaker Western Conference by relying wholly and completely in Connor Hellebuyck. His .923 save percentage has matched his efficiency two seasons ago when he was second for the Vezina Trophy. He’s been absurd in front of a defense patched together with Josh Morrissey and a ball of string.
Tampa Bay Lightning
No practice, same lines as last night
Forwards
Ondrej Palat – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Steven Stamkos – Anthony Cirelli – Tyler Johnson
Alexander Volkov – Cedric Paquette – Alex Killorn
Carter Verhaeghe – Mitchell Stephens – Yanni Gourde
Defense
Victor Hedman – Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev – Kevin Shattenkirk
Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
Winnipeg Jets
From last practice on Thursday
Forwards
Kyle Connor – Mark Scheifele – Patrik Laine
Andrew Copp – Blake Wheeler – Nikolaj Ehlers
Mathieu Perreault – Adam Lowry – Jack Roslovic
Jansen Harkins – Nicholas Shore – Mason Appleton
Defense
Josh Morrissey – Dmitry Kulikov
Sami Niku – Neal Pionk
Anthony Bitetto – Luca Sbisa
Goalies
Connor Hellebuyck
Laurent Brossoit
