Fresh off another impressive victory over the Montreal Canadiens, the Tampa Bay Lightning will take to the ice tonight at the Air Canada Centre for a matchup with the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs. With a win, the Bolts would move into first place in the Atlantic Division.
While this game looks very winnable on paper, it has the makings of a trap game for Tampa Bay. That win over Montreal was emotionally and physically draining. To get fired up the next day for a game against a team aiming for the highest draft pick possible isn’t always easy. If the Lightning come out flat and play down to their opponent, it shouldn’t surprise anyone. Plus, the Lightning’s record this season indicates that they are *very* average on the road.
That’s not to say that the Leafs aren’t beatable though. This year’s version of the Toronto Maple Leafs is bad, real bad. That team is 3-10-1 in the month of March, and has only won seven games since January 1st according to TampaBayLightning.com. Things have completely gone off the rails.
The trouble for Toronto, however, is that they aren’t quite bad enough to be the worst of the worst. Teams like Arizona, Buffalo, and Edmonton all sit below the Leafs in the standings. Barring a victory in the draft lottery, that means Toronto won’t land either Jack Eichel or Connor McDavid this offseason. Still, Dylan Strome or Mitch Marner is a pretty good consolation prize.
So, while this season has been a write-off for the Leafs, the future is certainly bright.
On the other hand, things are a little bit different for the Lightning. This Tampa Bay squad is poised to strike now. Despite the fact that they are dealing with significant injuries, this team just continues to win. Beating the Montreal Canadiens without Jason Garrison, Braydon Coburn, Andrej Sustr, and Victor Hedman (for the third period) was an impressive thing. If anything, it shows that the window is certainly open for this group in the Eastern Conference.
Because of that aforementioned Hedman injury, the Lightning recalled Slater Koekkoek from the Syracuse Crunch. The 10th overall pick from the 2012 draft will be making his National Hockey League debut in front of family at the ACC. In addition, Andrei Vasilevskiy is expected to get the start in net.
In conclusion, and as mentioned in the introduction to this blog, this has the makings of the trap game. A decent effort is the only way to stop the trap from being sprung. Here’s hoping the Bolts show up and move into first place in the Atlantic.
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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