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Winnipeg Jets at Tampa Bay Lightning Preview and Game Day Thread

Winnipeg Jets at Tampa Bay Lightning: GAME #66

Time: 7:00 pm Eastern Time

Location: Amalie Arena

Broadcast/Streaming: BSSUN, TSN3 HULU, ESPN+

Opponent SBNation Site: Arctic Ice Hockey

The Tampa Bay Lightning haven’t won two games in a row since mid-February, when the team defeated the Dallas Stars and the Colorado Avalanche at the beginning of their road trip. Since that moment Tampa Bay played in 13 games, winning only four of them — their worst stretch of this season by a big margin. Tonight they’re looking to break that bad streak with a win against the Winnipeg Jets, who also don’t have a great record lately.

To the delight of the Lightning fans, Victor Hedman returned to the lineup on Saturday, after missing just two games due to a lower body injury, and looked like didn’t even skip a beat, playing more than 24 minutes in this game. Unfortunately, the Bolts didn’t manage to play even one period in their optimal lineup as Steven Stamkos went to the locker room after a collision with a opposite team player in the opening period. Luckily, it doesn’t look like a serious injury per Jon Cooper and was mostly a precaution.

The Jets are arriving to Tampa after an overtime win against the Florida Panthers last night. But as it was mentioned earlier, their record in latest games is quiet poor. They’re currently 3-5-2 in their 10 latest games and rolled down to the second wild card spot in the West. Winnipeg still can feel pretty safel about their playoff chances with a six-point lead ahead of the Nashville Predators and the Calgary Flames, who are still in hunt for the playoffs, but could probably say goodbye to their chances of having a home-ice advantage in the postseason.

The Jets also made some acquisitions at the trade deadline, one of them were bringing former Lightning player Vlad Namestnikov to Winnipeg, who ended up there via the trade with the San Jose Sharks. With the absence of Pierre-Luc Dubois, Namestnikov is playing in the Jets top-six and has five points in four games with his new team, including two goals and assists last night against Florida. Will Namestnikov join the list of former Bolts scoring against them? We will find out tonight.

Besides Namestnikov, the Jets also acquired Nino Niederreiter from Nashville. He’s currently playing on Winnipeg’s top line and has five points in six games with them.

Winnipeg’s injury list doesn’t end with the name of Pierre-Luc Dubois. Cole Perfetti was placed on injury reserve at the end of February and was expected to miss at least eight weeks at that time. Both Adam Lowry and Josh Morrissey are questionable to play against the Lightning tonight and will be re-evaluated during the day.

In their only meeting this season, the Jets defeated 4-2 the Bolts back in January. Winnipeg surged back, after being behind 2-1 in the middle of the second period, with two power play goals and one empty-netter. Andrei Vasilevskiy, who’s expected to start tonight, had a quite poor night, making just 16 saves on that night.

Winnipeg Jets at Tampa Bay Lightning Comparison

Game # 66 Tampa Bay Lightning WInnipeg Jets
Overall Record 39-21-6 37-26-3
Home Record 24-5-5 21-11-2
Road Record 15-16-1 16-15-1
Goals For 229 205
Goals Against 201 186
xGF 229.44 217.16
xGA 209.61 209.47
PP% 26.0% 21.3%
PK% 80.0% 82.5%

Tampa Bay Lightning Potential Lines

Forward Lines

Steven Stamkos (?) – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov

Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Alex Killorn

Ross Colton – Nick Paul – Tanner Jeannot

Pat Maroon – Michael Eyssimont – Corey Perry

Defense Pairings

Victor Hedman – Nick Perbix

Ian Cole – Erik Cernak

Mikhail Sergachev – Zach Bogosian

Goaltenders

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Brian Elliott

Winnipeg Jets Potential Lines

Forward Lines

Kyle Connor – Mark Scheifele – Nino Niederreiter

Nikolaj Ehlers – Vlad Namestnikov – Blake Wheeler

Morgan Barron – Adam Lowry (?) – Mason Appleton

Saku Maenalanen – Kevin Stenlund – David Gustafsson

Defense Pairings

Josh Morrissey (?) – Dylan DeMelo

Brenden Dillon – Neal Pionk

Logan Stanley – Nate Schmidt

Goaltenders

Connor Hellebuyck

David Rittich

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