Game Two: Vancouver Canucks (0-0-2) at Tampa Bay Lightning (1-0-0)
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Location: Amalie Arena
TV/Streaming/Radio: BSSUN, SNP, ESPN+, 102.5 FM
Odds: Lightning -130
After an opening week of the NHL that saw the Tampa Bay Lightning play just once, their season kicks into it’s regular groove tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. From now until the end of the month, the Lightning will play every other night except for next Monday and Tuesday when they have a back-to-back in Toronto and New Jersey. After a seemingly endless run of practicing against each other, they will finally start seeing some opponents on a consistent basis.
It should be an animated crowd that greets the Lightning for their first home game of the season. After a couple of weeks of hurricane-related stress, the Tampa faithful finally get to see their boys in blue take to the ice. Expect the Lightning to pull out all of the stops to put on a good show for their fans tonight.
There was a lot to like in their first game against Carolina last Friday. There were long stretches of the play where they were dictating the pace of play and had the ‘Canes on their heels. Yes, there was a little wobble in the second period where they fell into some bad habits and Carolina pressed. However, Andrei Vasilevskiy bailed them out when they needed to, playing like he had something to prove. Some folks might have forgotten that Vasy is one of the top goalies in the league and he reminded them with a 2.46 Goals Saved Above Expected on the night.
The glass half-empty folks will point out that the Lightning, who have emphasized a need for more 5v5 scoring, didn’t record a 5v5 goal against Carolina. Two power play goals and two empty-net goals were the difference. Well, sure, but they also only gave up one 5v5 goal. Which is pretty good considering they averaged 2.87 GA/60 last season.
The power play looked a lot different than last year (as expected), but still managed to connect twice. The first goal was pretty familiar as Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, and Brayden Point worked the puck around until Point was able to get a shot off from the point. The second one came from a blistering shot from Kucherov off of a clean face-off win.
Despite the two goals, it wasn’t quite a well-oiled machine as there were some awkward entries and they didn’t quite work Darren Raddysh in as a triggerman from the left circle. On the night they generated shots and they generated some good chances. Natural Stat Trick had them with 4 high-danger chances off of 5 scoring chances with the extra skater.
Slightly more concerning was the fact that they only generated 6 high-danger chances and 15 scoring chances overall. That will have to improve as the season continues. It can be chalked up to rust, preoccupation with non-hockey things, or the fact that Carolina is a pretty solid defensive team. One thing to look for tonight against Vancouver is if the Bolts can get to the dangerous areas and make life rough on the Canucks.
Vancouver is still looking for their first win on the season as they’ve opened with a shootout loss Philadelphia and an overtime loss to Calgary. Both games saw Vancouver squander third-period leads, something that irked their intense coach, Rick Tocchet,
“I don’t know and I’m not pointing fingers at the players, but they were both winnable games. We have to get to our staples really quick. We’ve got to start going through people and I don’t think we’re battling as hard as we should. It is early, but we’ve got to get to it.”
They’ll want to snap out of things as they kick off an East Coast road trip so the Bolts have to be ready for a strong push tonight. Playing in front of a home crowd for the first time in months should energize the team. Once that energy wears off, though, they’ll have to keep the energy up as they slid into the regular grind of the season.
Potential Lightning Lines
Forwards
Jake Guentzel- Brayden Point- Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel- Anthony Cirelli-Nick Paul
Conor Sheary-Conor Geekie-Mikey Eyssimont
Zemgus Girgensons- Luke Glendening-Mitchell Chaffee
Defense
Victor Hedman- JJ Moser
Ryan McDonagh- Erik Cernak
Darren Raddysh- Nick Perbix
Goaltender
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Potential Canucks Lines
Forwards
Brock Boeser- JT Miller- Arshdeep Baines
Danton Heinen- Elias Pettersson – Jake Debrusk
Nils Hoglander- AAtu Raty- Conor Garland
Kiefer Sherwood- Teddy Blueger- Pius Suter
Defense
Quinn Hughes – Filip Horonek
Carson Soucey – Vincent Desharnais
Derek Forbort – Noah Juulsen
Goaltender
Kevin Lankinen
