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The Tampa Bay Lightning are back home. In more than the literal sense, too.
Back at Amalie Arena to host the Pittsburgh Penguins after a successful four-game road swing that ended with three straight victories after a frustrating loss in Calgary, Jon Cooper’s group looks like an undoubtedly more cohesive bunch that’s regained their offensive rhythm after countless nights and losses of what should have been moments for his group. So much of that has to do with the return of a finally, or perhaps thankfully is a better fit there, healthy Ondrej Palat.
In his fifth game back in the lineup in Tuesday’s 4-0 demolition of the Colorado Avalanche, the 24-year-old looked at his absolute best, finishing the night with a season-high three points. He began the goal-scoring party with his first since Oct. 23, came through with a sweet assists on Steven Stamkos’ two second period tallies. Palat was credited with the second helper on Stamkos’ first marker, but it really was a great feed to Vladislav Namestnikov that allowed No. 90 to find Stamkos for the tic-tac-toe, zig-zag of a goal. And then it was Palat that feed a net-driven Stamkos for No. 2.
This was the first game where you watched Palat and really felt as if his timing was back to where it needs to be for the Bolts and himself to be a successful hockey club. You also saw many of the Bolts’ other stars of a year ago -- Victor Hedman, Tyler Johnson, and even roleplayers like Brian Boyle -- put forth some of their best efforts in what looked way more like a 2014-15 game than a 2015-16 night.
In one game, you saw almost everything you’ve longed for almost 40 games into the season.
Now comes the challenging part: Applying those efforts against a fellow Eastern Conference club, one chasing you in the wild card standings in the Penguins, at home. The home wins have proved to be the most elusive for the Bolts this year (they’re 10-8-2 at home this year, versus a 32-8-1 mark at home in 41 games last season), and the Metro Division as a whole has given Tampa fits at times (5-5-0).
Naturally, the big test for Tampa in this one comes with slowing down a three-headed Pittsburgh offensive charge led by Sidney Crosby (whose game is finally coming around), Evgeni Malkin (the pulse of the Pens this year), and the ever dangerous Phil Kessel.
But what the Bolts will need to do to win this one, above all else, is find ways to score on Marc-Andre Fleury. Although Fleury took the loss in Pittsburgh’s last game after allowing three goals on 21 shots (including a straight-up strange tally off Fleury’s back and in), the 31-year-old has been more than solid for the struggling Penguins this year, with 15 wins and a .927 to his name.
Fleury has 16 wins and a .909 save percentage in 30 career starts against the Lightning.
Tampa Bay counters with Andrei Vasilevskiy. Vasilevskiy stopped 21-of-23 in a Jan. 9 overtime win over the Canucks, and though the playing time has been hard to come by, at least at the NHL level, enters play with three straight wins to his name, beginning with Dec. 15’s victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 21-year-old has allowed six goals on 92 shots over that stretch (.935 save percentage), and beat the Penguins in his only prior career start against them in a 26-of-29 showing.
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.