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The end of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s franchise-record nine-game winning streak has come with two consecutive losses to their name. But still, as the team returns to the ice for tonight’s tilt with the Philadelphia Flyers for the first time since Tuesday’s 1-0 overtime defeat at the hands of the Boston Bruins, first place in the Atlantic Division remains just one point out of reach.
The first of those two losses came in Philadelphia on Monday, too, as the Flyers completely thrashed the Lightning into oblivion, led by two goals from
Shayne Gostisbehere. But as much as Philly’s night was headlined by what Ghost and Co. did in the Tampa Bay end, it was their defensive effort at the other end that really stuck out, as the Lightning were held a season-low 18 shots on goal.
“That was one of those games for whatever reason out of 82, we’ll chalk into an aberration, that doesn’t happen very often to us,” Bolts coach
Jon Cooper said of the club’s loss in Philadelphia. “Philly had us on on the run most of the night, and if not for Vasilevskiy’s heroics who knows what that score would have been, but I really, really liked the way we responded against Boston.”
And though the Bolts did not skate off as the victors in that game, either, Cooper liked what he saw.
“Our compete, our passion, everything was back,” Cooper noted of the Boston showdown that saw Tampa put 42 shots on net. “I fully expect to see that again tonight, and that’s a big difference for us.”
In net, the Flyers will go back to
Steve Mason for the third straight game. The Oakville, Ont. native stopped 16-of-18 Tampa Bay shots thrown his way in Monday’s win, and stopped all 19 shots against in his start before that, so while the rubber has been few and far between, Mason’s play has been what it needs to be for a Philadelphia club just three points out of the final wild card spot.
Mason has two wins and an .875 save percentage in seven career games against the Lightning.
Tampa Bay will counter with
Ben Bishop. The 6-foot-7 Bishop took the overtime loss on Tuesday in spite of a strong 32-of-33 performance, but comes into play with wins in six of his last seven starts overall. Amalie Arena has once again been kind to Bishop, too, with 15 wins and a .923 save percentage in 27 home starts this season. This will be Bishop’s fourth career start against Philadelphia, and he enters the tilt with two wins and a .905 save percentage in three career head-to-heads.
An area of concern for the Bolts of late has been their anemic power play, which has converted on just two of their last 23 power-play opportunities, including a five-game power-play goal drought.
“It comes down to some execution, it comes down to making some plays,” Tampa forward
Ryan Callahan said of the team’s man advantage, which ranks 25th in the NHL at 16.7%. “It needs to be better, we realize that. It has to be better if we want to make any noise in the playoffs.
“We have the right pieces, we have a lot of talented guys, so hopefully it comes together soon.”
On a lineup front, both
Braydon Coburn and
Anton Stralman are considered game-time decisions for the Bolts. With
Slater Koekkoek reassigned to the American Hockey League earlier today, it would only make sense that at least one of Coburn and Stralman return tonight.
The Bolts have won 10 of their last 13 games with Philadelphia overall, and have not lost to Philly at home since a 4-3 overtime defeat on Feb. 15, 2011 (eight straight wins over that span).
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
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