Following a few days off, the Calgary Flames return to action tonight as they play host to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Flames are hoping they didn't lose their spark over the last few days -- they haven't played since Saturday's blowout win over Winnipeg -- as they shoot for their seventh consecutive win.
When you think about the Lightning, you think about them as one of the NHL's best teams. That has been far from the case this season.
The Lightning have won 14 times in 29 games and just twice over their last 10. Their defense has been leaky, Ben Bishop has not played overly well and they're playing without one of the NHL's best snipers in Steven Stamkos. Add it all up and it's not hard to see why the Lightning are currently on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, even in a weak Atlantic Division.
Tampa Bay still has plenty of talent on their roster but this is a winnable game for the scorching hot Flames.
Here are the expected line combinations for the Flames:
Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik Johnny Gaudreau - Sam Bennett - Alex Chiasson Micheal Ferland - Sean Monahan - Troy Brouwer Lance Bouma - Matt Stajan - Garnet Hathaway
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton T.J. Brodie - Dennis Wideman Jyrki Jokipakka - Deryk Engelland
Chad Johnson
And the expected lines for the Lightning (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Ondrej Palat - Tyler Johnson - Nikita Kucherov Brian Boyle - Valtteri Filppula - Jonathan Drouin Alex Killorn - Brayden Point - Vladimir Namestnikov Joel Vermin - Cedric Paquette - J.T. Brown
Victor Hedman - Anton Stralman Jason Garrison - Andrej Sustr Braydon Coburn - Nikita Nesterov
Ben Bishop
A few notes:
1) Over the last 10 games, the Lightning are in the bottom half of the league in shot attempt and scoring chance generation at 5v5. They've struggled to create at full-strength so the Flames can't afford to take penalties and make things easy on them.
2) Another note on why scoring may be difficult for the Bolts: the Flames have allowed just nine goals over their six-game winning streak. Meanwhile, the Lightning have scored one or less in four of their last seven.
3) Sean Monahan was missing in action for the first chunk of the season but he's caught fire of late. He is currently riding a seven-game point streak and is finally starting to shoot more (he recorded a season-high five shots last time out). He should get plenty of looks against a Lightning team that has struggled to defend.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 9:30 eastern and can be seen on SN, SN360 and SUN.
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