Wild at Lightning Preview and GDT: Back to Hockey

Game #45 – Minnesota Wild (18-20-5) at Tampa Bay Lightning (22-17-5)
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Location: Amalie Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: ESPN+, HULU

Opponent’s Site: Hockey Wilderness

Preview

After a nice four-day break and a chance to reset the mental aspect of a long, soul-crushing season, the Tampa Bay Lightning are back on the ice to wrap up their four-game homestand. After winning the first three, the Bolts will look to keep the good times rolling as they take on the Minnesota Wild. Tonight’s game will also mark the return of the Florida Man, Pat Maroon, to Amalie Arena for the first time since he was traded this summer for a 2024 seventh round pick.

Maroon has been a solid season for the Wild with 14 points (4 goals, 10 assists) in 43 games, which matches his season total with the Lightning last year. He’s settled into a fourth line role and is playing just under 13 minutes a night for them. It should be a pretty good tribute video for the man who brought a little swagger to the team prior to the 2019-20 season.

As for the Lightning, it looks like their roster is pretty much the same as it was before the break. Mikhail Sergachev and Haydn Fleury are still out. Erik Cernak didn’t practice yesterday and is likely a game-time decision. Tanner Jeannot remains out as well. So, it looks like the rookies (Max Crozier and Emil Lilleberg) will be in the line-up once again while Alex Barré-Boulet took shifts on the third line.

One nice thing about the four-day break is that the Bolts are able to get in a solid practice or two. With the way the season progresses sometimes teams just don’t have the chance to get back to basics and work on things in a full practice. When they’re playing every other day, there time to work on things are usually limited to morning skates or short practices on their off days. For a team that, on occasion, benefits by simplifying things, having a couple of days of practice could prove beneficial.

The big thing for them, and what has been a big factor in their recent winning streak, will be making sure they stay engaged for a full 60 minutes. While they can’t be expected to be perfect for an entire game, making sure they don’t have a drop off in the effort will be a huge factor in staying in the playoff race. For the most part they stayed put in the standings as the teams around them caught up with them in terms of games played.

With 49 points in 44 games, they enter tonight’s game in the second wild card spot. They trail the third place Detroit Red Wings by two points with the same number of games played. Toronto, on a three-game losing streak, sits between the two teams with 42 games played.

Stats Match-up

Lines

Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines

Forwards
Steven Stamkos – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Nick Paul
Alex Barré-Boulet – Tyler Motte – Conor Sheary

Austin Watson – Luke Glendening – Mikey Eyssimont

Defenders
Victor Hedman – Darren Raddysh
Emil Lilleberg – Nick Perbix
Calvin de Haan – Max Crozier

Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy

Jonas Johansson

Minnesota Wild Projected Lines

Forwards
Kirill Kaprizov – Marco Rossi – Mats Zuccarello

Marcus Johansson – Joel Eriksson Ek – Matt Boldy

Marcus Foligno – Ryan Hartman – Frederick Gaudreau

Brandon Duhaime – Connor Dewar – Pat Maroon

Defenders
Jacob Middleton – Brock Faber

Jonas Brodin – Zach Bogosian

Daemon Hunt – Dakota Mermis

Goalies

Marc-Andre Fleury

Filip Gustavsson

Question of the Night

Can the Lightning get the wagon fired back up after four days off?