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Lightning Looking to Get Back on Track with Islanders in Town

November 15, 2014, 1:23 PM ET [24 Comments]
Michael Stuart
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Looking to snap a two-game winless streak, the Tampa Bay Lightning will be in action tonight against the New York Islanders at Amalie Arena. This is the first of three meetings between the Bolts and Islanders this season.

If Tampa is going to grab two points tonight, they will have to slow down a red-hot New York team; the revamped Islanders have won five games in a row. They are getting solid goaltending from Jaroslav Halak, offensive production from up and down their lineup, and defensive contributions from all corners of their roster. It’s been an impressive start to the season for Garth Snow’s baby.

The good news for the Lightning is that New York played last night in Florida; that game went all the way to a shootout. It’s a lot easier to slow down a tired, traveling team than it is to slow down a rested one.

With only an optional skate scheduled this morning, it’s a little bit tougher to gauge what Jon Cooper might do with his lineup. According to Bryan Burns of NHL.com, yesterday’s practice lines looked something like this:

Valtteri Filppula-Steven Stamkos-Ryan Callahan
Cedric Paquette-Tyler Johnson-Nikita Kucherov
Brenden Morrow-Brian Boyle-J.T. Brown
Jonathan Drouin-Vladislav Namestnikov-Alex Killorn

Ondrej Palat was missing from yesterday’s practice with what the coach called a lower-body injury. He will be a game-time decision tonight.

In net, the Lightning will send Ben Bishop to hold down the fort. While New York is Evgeni Nabokov’s old team, the Lightning need to right the ship and get some wins right now. Nobody can deny that Bishop gives this team a better chance to win than his backup does. After shining against both Chicago and San Jose, Bishop has improved his season stats, and now boasts a 2.37GAA and a .918SV%. He’ll have to be at his best tonight, as the Islanders are one of the highest scoring teams in the league, sitting fifth overall with a scoring rate of 3.06 goals per game.

Losing two games in a row is an inconvenience. Losing three games in a row stings. The Lightning can avoid the latter with a win tonight over the Islanders. If they get back to possessing the puck, playing smart defense, and SHOOTING THE PUCK, there’s a good chance this team might walk out of Amalie with two points tonight.

As always, thanks for reading.

Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.
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