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TIME: Coverage begins at 7 p.m. ET
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TAMPA, Fla. -- As teams come out of the All-Star break to begin the second half of the season, Tuesday's Boston Bruins-Tampa Bay Lightning game illustrates the tight logjam that is the bottom half of the Eastern Conference standings.
The Lightning (22-22-6), who reside one point ahead of last place in the East, are just six out of the final wild card as well as third place in the Atlantic Division, currently owned by the Bruins (25-21-6).
Boston has played two more games than the Lightning, which means the two teams are actually even closer in the standings. The Bruins skated to a 4-1 home win against Tampa Bay in November, and the division rivals will play twice in the final 10 games of the season.
Tampa Bay is returning home for the first time since Jan. 13 -- coach Jon Cooper joked that the road trip spanned two presidents -- but its focus isn't on the remaining 32 games, but simply the one next on the schedule.
"Our crunch time is Boston," Cooper said Monday. "There's no sense in looking too far ahead. ... It's pointless thinking like that. Boston's ahead of us. That's a team we need to catch to get in the playoffs. That's where our mindset is."
When the new year started, the Lightning were 19-15-4 and the Bruins 20-15-4, with Tampa Bay going 3-7-2 and Boston 5-6-2.
The teams' strengths will go head-to-head, as the Lightning have the NHL's No. 4 power play (22.8 percent) and the Bruins have the league's No. 2 penalty kill (86.5 percent). Boston goalie Tuukka Rask, coming straight from the All-Star Game, is sixth in the league with a 2.15 goals-against average; Tampa Bay's Ben Bishop ranks 30th, far behind at 2.78 goals against, with Andrei Vasilevskiy one spot behind him.
Boston is in a better position than Tampa Bay entering the game, but the Bruins share the same urgency to collect as many points as possible in head-to-head games like this before they fall behind.
"It's a necessity now. You're fighting for your life," center David Backes said. "We need to gather those points. Now is the time to do it. You have to have that emotional investment."
Boston goes back-to-back to open the second half with a game Wednesday at the Washington Capitals. Tampa Bay has three home contests in five days to start its final stretch.
