NEW YORK -- The Tampa Bay Lightning continue their six-game road trip on Sunday night when they visit the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
After starting the jaunt with victories against the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs, the Lightning have dropped consecutive 3-1 decisions to the Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils. Although the Lightning started 5-1-0 and hold a 5-3-0 record, slow starts have been an issue all season -- the team has scored in just one first period in eight games.
"We've got to find ways to start games on time," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said to the Tampa Bay Times. "You can have all the skill in the world, but if you don't stick to the game plan and structure and work at it, you're going to win a couple games because you're more skilled than the other team. But usually you're not going to win in this league. The parity is too great."
Goaltender Ben Bishop is expected to get the start in net after watching backup Andrei Vasilevskiy allow three goals on 23 shots Saturday. Right winger Nikita Kucherov, who missed the game Saturday with an upper-body injury, is listed as day-to-day.
Is it possible that Kucherov, who led the team with 30 goals last season, is back in time to face the Rangers?
"Could is the word. Can he? I'm not so sure," coach Jon Cooper said to the Tampa Bay Times before Saturday's game. "But I know he's feeling much better today...It's not a good situation, but let's just hope it's only a couple games or maybe one game."
Kucherov's offensive talents could be sorely missed against the Rangers (5-3-0), who lead the NHL in goals per game at 3.63. They remodeled the team in an attempt to add speed throughout the lineup and it has worked beautifully.
The problem is whether the quick team has the makeup to score enough ugly goals when the pretty ones aren't coming. That was the case in a 3-2 road loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday, when the Rangers couldn't get anything done in the dirty areas with their opponent sitting back and playing it safe with a lead.
"You know that teams are going to be patient back there," captain Ryan McDonagh said to the New York Daily News. "We've had a couple of games now needing a goal like that. We certainly had some chances, but you know they're going to be sagging, they're going to be taking away a lot of the slot area...So guys going to the net and getting a rebound is something we have to look at a little bit when we find ourselves in that situation."
If the Hurricanes gave the league a blueprint for slowing the Rangers offense, it may be something the Lightning employ Sunday. After all, they are playing the second half of a back-to-back while the Rangers are at home and rested so turning the neutral-zone to mud could benefit the road-weary Lightning.
"Shooting pucks...that's something we've got to learn," Rangers center Derek Stepan said to the New York Daily News. "When teams get up and are going to sit in that neutral-zone trap or whatever you want to call it, we have to find a way to get through it with speed and generate offense."
