Tampa Bay Lightning at Carolina Hurricanes: GAME 3
Time: 5:00 pm ET
Location: PNC Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: FS-CR, SUN
Opponent SBNation Site: Canes Country
Preview:
Well, after five straight games against the Florida Panthers, the Tampa Bay Lightning arrive in Carolina to take on the Hurricanes. Both teams will be playing their second-half of a back-to-back this weekend, so at least everyone’s tired!
The Lightning dropped last night’s game 4-3, while the Hurricanes beat the Capitals in overtime. Tampa Bay played well against Florida to start, but went down 3-0 in the second and couldn’t quite come back from that deficit. Carolina also went down 2-0 against Washington, but fought back to send the game to overtime. They killed off a penalty in the extra frame, and Jake Gardiner scored the game-winner.
Gemel Smith scored his first goal with the Lightning last night, while Steven Stamkos and Mathieu Joseph got on the scoresheet for the first time this season. Despite not getting the result they wanted, it was encouraging that Tampa Bay outplayed Florida last night — the difference was special teams.
As far as lineup changes go, the only difference for the Bolts should be Curtis McElhinney coming in for Andrei Vasilevskiy. Likewise, we’ll probably see Petr Mrazek come in for James Reimer for Carolina. While the Hurricanes remain uninjured, the Lightning are still without Brayden Point (who is progressing well) and Cedric Paquette (who we may not see until closer to November).
Tonight’s game will be the third in four nights for the Bolts, who then get three days off before heading up north for their Eastern Canadian road trip. Hopefully they can get their road trip headed back in the right direction with a win tonight.
Tampa Bay Lightning (1-1-0)
Forwards
Steven Stamkos – Tyler Johnson – Nikita Kucherov
Ondrej Palat – Anthony Cirelli – Alex Killorn
Carter Verhaeghe – Yanni Gourde – Mathieu Joseph
Patrick Maroon – Gemel Smith – Luke Witkowski
Injured: Brayden Point, Cedric Paquette
Defense Pairings
Victor Hedman – Kevin Shattenkirk
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Braydon Coburn – Mikhail Sergachev
Scratched: Jan Rutta
Goaltenders
Curtis McElhinney
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Carolina Hurricanes (1-0-0)
Forward Lines
Nino Niederreiter – Sebastian Aho – Teuvo Teravainen
Andrei Svechnikov – Jordan Staal – Brock McGinn
Ryan Dzingel – Erik Haula – Martin Necas
Warren Foegele – Lucas Wallmark – Jordan Martinook
Defense Pairings
Jaccob Slavin – Dougie Hamilton
Joel Edmundson – Brett Pesce
Jake Gardiner – Haydn Fleury
Goaltenders
Petr Mrazek
James Reimer
