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Seeking Revenge: Lightning Set to Face Wild at Amalie Arena

November 22, 2014, 4:14 PM ET [11 Comments]
Michael Stuart
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Having lost four of their last six games, the Tampa Bay Lightning need to get back on track. They’ll try to do exactly that against a very good opponent tonight, as the red hot Minnesota Wild are in town for a tilt at Amalie Arena.

This is the second of two meetings between the Bolts and Wild this season. On October 25th in Minnesota, the Lightning dropped an embarrassing 7-2 decision. Shoddy goaltending and uninspiring play from most of the skaters helped turn what should have been an exciting game between two skilled teams into a debacle. Tampa will have its only shot at revenge tonight.

If the Bolts are going to get things back on track this evening, they’ll do it with a different lineup than fans are used to seeing. With so many healthy bodies and quality depth on the roster, Jon Cooper has been forced to make some difficult decisions. According to Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune, Cedric Paquette and Mark Barberio will be in the lineup tonight, while Eric Brewer and Vladislav Namesnikov will be relegated to popcorn quality control duty upstairs. As expected, Ben Bishop will get the start in net.

What’s particularly interesting about this season’s version of the Wild is that they’ve been winning without much high-end production. Their highest scoring players, Nino Niederreiter, Zach Parise, and Jason Pominville, have only amassed 12 points each this season; the caveat there is that Parise has done it in 13 games, while the other two have done it in 18. A lot of the credit for their success should probably go to goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who has been simply fantastic all year.

With that said, this Wild team is still one that can pot goals and give opposing defenses headaches; look no further than their last game against the Lightning and the fact that they rank eighth in goals per game as evidence of that.

While they currently sit outside the playoff picture in the Western Conference, the Wild are riding high on a four-game win streak. Victories against Philadelphia, Winnipeg, Dallas, and Buffalo have them only one point outside the West’s final wildcard spot with multiple games in hand. The Bolts cannot view this as a game against a non-playoff team.

The Lightning, on the other hand, sit comfortably in a playoff spot. Holding down second place in the Atlantic Division, the Bolts have an opportunity to make up ground. A win tonight combined with a Montreal loss would move them back to within one of the division leading Canadiens. The opposite would put them five (!) back. There’s a lot on the line.

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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