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Tampa Bay Lightning Continue Homestand Against Hurricanes
The Tampa Bay Lightning will close out 2016 with a home game against the Carolina Hurricanes and continue their five-game homestand into the new year.
It has been an interesting year for the Tampa Bay Lightning and their fans, and there were many memorable moments along the way. As we close out 2016 and head into a new year, the Lightning will take on a former division rival, the Carolina Hurricanes, for the second time this season.
In the previous meeting between these two teams, the Hurricanes scored in overtime and shut out the Lightning, 1-0 in Raleigh. Tampa Bay had just come off a 2-1 shootout victory over the Washington Capitals at home the night before, and the Lightning were in the midst of a rough stretch of games.
Since that game in early December, the Tampa Bay Lightning have gone 4-4-2 overall, but have won three of their last five games and look to be trending in the right direction despite not being fully healthy. On the other side, the Hurricanes have gone 6-2-2 overall and are 2-2-1 in their last five games, including a 3-2 home victory over the Chicago Blackhawks last night.
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Over that stretch, Carolina has climbed up in the standings and the team now finds itself in the thick of things in the Eastern Conference Playoff picture. The Hurricanes are 16-12-7 (39 points, minus-2 goal differential) and sit one point behind the Lightning in the Wild Card race. If they can go on a run here into January and beyond, they might be able to move into a Wild Card spot.
The Metropolitan Division has been one of the best in the NHL this season, and if the Hurricanes desire a playoff spot come April, the Wild Card might be their only way in. On the other hand, the Atlantic Division is a bit more wide open, though the Montreal Canadiens seem to have a firm hold on the top spot even if Ottawa isn’t too far behind.
If the Tampa Bay Lightning want a shot a making the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season, they’ll need to keep stockpiling points, and one of the top three spots in the division might be their only way in this go around. As such, playing well during these next few games at Amalie Arena will be very important in helping them achieve that goal.
The new year could either bring great fortune and success to the Lightning or more injuries and the lost hope of a fourth straight playoff berth.
The Teams
As mentioned before, both the Lightning and Hurricanes are scrambling for points in a tight Wild Card race, and only one point separates the two teams, though Carolina has two games in hand. The Hurricanes are 5-1-0 on the second half of a back-to-back situation, and will look to keep the ball rolling after a win over one of the NHL’s elite teams.
Carolina Hurricanes
Carolina’s two top scorers this season include forwards Jeff Skinner and Victor Rask, both of whom are under 25 years of age. Skinner leads the team with 13 goals and 27 points in 34 games, and Rask is not far behind with 10 goals and 26 points in 35 games. Additionally, center Jordan Staal leads the team in both SAT (shot attempts) and USAT unblocked shot attempts) percentage, with 58.17 percent and 58.72 percent, respectively.
On the Power Play, the Hurricanes are 11th in the NHL on the man advantage overall, converting on 20.2 percent of their opportunities, and seventh in the league on the road, converting on 22.2 percent of their opportunities. Meanwhile, the Lightning are 18th in the NHL in home Penalty Kill percentage, with an 81.1 percent success rate, but are just 25th overall with a 79.2 percent success rate.
Overall, the Hurricanes give up an average of 2.60 goals per game and score around 2.60 goals per game in return. On the road, Carolina gives up an average of 2.79 goals per game and scores around 2.35 per game.
Goaltender Cam Ward, who is projected to get the start tonight, has a 13-9-0 record, a .917 save percentage and a 2.26 goals against average. The backup to Ward, netminder Eddie Lack, has appeared in five games and has a 1-2-0 record, a .856 save percentage and a 3.79 goals against average.
Also, goaltender Michael Leighton (yes, that Michael Leighton, who was a part of the Flyers’ Stanley Cup Run in 2010) is in the mix and currently sports a 2-1-0 in three appearances this season.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning dropped a tough one on Thursday night against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime. Toronto scored on an ensuing Power Play to end the game after the officials made a controversial call on Lightning forward Valtteri Filppula prior to that. Nonetheless, the Bolts grabbed a point in the overtime loss and stay afloat in the Eastern Conference playoff chase.
Though Tampa Bay has been playing better as of late, the team still continues to give up the first goal of the game all too often. On Thursday, the Lightning allowed the opening goal for the 24th time this season, and we’re not even halfway through the regular season yet. All this time we’ve been saying that trend needs to stop and it hasn’t happened yet, so we’ll see.
To avoid giving up a 33rd goal in the first period tonight, the Lightning need to come out strong as always, play strong defensively and avoid giving up an unnecessary amount of turnovers, as there were far too many against the Leafs and Toronto nearly cashed in on some of them. Carolina is also coming off of the first half of a back-to-back, so it’ll be important to take advantage of that.
The Lightning may have gone 0-for-5 on the Power Play against the Leafs, but they’ve been much better this season on the man advantage. Currently, Tampa Bay is 3rd in the NHL in Power Play percentage (22.6) overall and sixth on home ice (23.1 percent). On the flip side, Carolina has the best road Penalty Kill percentage in the league with a 94.2 percent success rate.
Recently, the team has been getting healthier by the day, though a few key players still remain out of the lineup. Leading scorer, Nikita Kucherov, returned against the Canadiens on Wednesday after a nearly three-week absence. In that game, he had two assists in 17:44 of ice time and was a part of the reunited “Triplets” line, which had six points that night. Overall, Kucherov has 13 goals and 33 points in 30 games this season.
Finally, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is expected to make his fifth straight start, and he has three wins in his last five games. This season, Vasilevskiy has been given more starts, and now that Ben Bishop is out for another few weeks, he’s taken over the reins in net for the Lightning. In 18 starts, Vasilevskiy has a 9-5-2 record, a .914 save percentage and a 2.57 goals against average.
I’d expect this to be a close game against two opponents that find themselves not far from each other in the standings. The Carolina Hurricanes came off of a win last night over the Blackhawks and will likely be tired once the puck drops against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. The Bolts need to continue picking up points along this crucial homestand if they desire a playoff berth come April.
TV/Radio/Live Stream Information
Game 38 match-up: Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Carolina Hurricanes
Venue: Amalie Arena
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Watch/Listen: FS-Sun, 970 WFLA, TBL Power Play, Fox Sports Go
Opponent FanSided site: Cardiac Cane
Projected lines (subject to change)
Tampa Bay Lightning
Forwards
Ondrej Palat – Vladislav Namestnikov – Nikita Kucherov
Brian Boyle – Valtteri Filppula – Jonathan Drouin
Alex Killorn – Matthew Peca – Yanni Gourde
Nikita Nesterov – J.T. Brown – Michael Bournival
Defensemen
Victor Hedman – Anton Stralman
Braydon Coburn – Slater Koekkoek
Goaltenders
Injuries/Scratches: Tyler Johnson (sent home sick, but is expected to play tonight), Ryan Callahan (lower-body, day-to-day), Brayden Point (upper-body, four to six weeks), Steven Stamkos (lateral meniscus tear, out for four months), Ben Bishop (lower-body, three to four weeks), Cedric Paquette (day-to-day), Erik Condra, scratches to be determined
Carolina Hurricanes
Forwards
Jeff Skinner – Victor Rask – Derek Ryan
Brock McGinn – Jordan Staal – Elias Lindholm
Sebastian Aho – Teuvo Teravainen – Lee Stempniak
Joakin Nordstrom – Jay McClement – Viktor Stalberg
Defensemen
Goaltenders
Michael Leighton
Injuries/Scratches: Bryan Bickell (IR, multiple sclerosis), Justin Faulk (lower-body), Matt Tennyson (healthy), Andrej Nestrasil (healthy), scratches to be determined
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