Fresh off an active trade deadline that saw them ship out forward Brett Connolly and acquire defenseman Braydon Coburn, the Tampa Bay Lightning will take to the ice tonight at Amalie Arena for a matchup with the lowly Buffalo Sabres. This is the fifth and final meeting between the Atlantic Division rivals this season; the Bolts hold a 3-0-1 record in the season series heading into tonight.
After dropping a 4-3 decision in Florida on Sunday night, the new-look Lightning will aim to get back to their winning ways tonight. They’ll have a great opportunity to do just that, as the Sabres are dismally bad. With Coburn now helping to anchor a much-improved Tampa blue line, the Bolts should have little trouble shutting down a Sabres team that will struggle to ice an NHL-quality roster for this game.
If they’re going to have success tonight, the Lightning will ice a lineup that looks something like this according to the team’s beat writer, Bryan Burns:
Alex Killorn-Steven Stamkos-Ryan Callahan Ondrej Palat-Tyler Johnson-Nikita Kucherov Cedric Paquette-Valtteri Filppula-Jonathan Drouin Brenden Morrow-Brian Boyle-J.T. Brown
Victor Hedman-Anton Stralman Jason Garrison-Braydon Coburn Mark Barberio-Andrej Sustr
Ben Bishop Andrei Vasilevskiy
There is some question as to who will start in net, as Vasilevskiy reportedly left the ice early at today’s practice. What we do know, however, is that former Bolt Anders Lindback will get the start in the net for the Sabres. He’s had a rough year so far, so the Bolts have an opportunity to take advantage of an old friend. Further, because of their trade deadline activities, the Sabres are ridiculously vulnerable. Nothing short of a win will be acceptable for Tampa this evening.
Aside from the team’s performance itself, there are two specific things to watch tonight:
1) Coburn’s Debut He’s set to play his first game with the Lightning tonight alongside Jason Garrison, as noted above. The big, defensive-defenseman will bring a certain element of shutdown ability that may have been missing on the team’s blue line prior to the trade. It will be interesting to see how comfortable he looks on his new team.
2) The New Forward Lines While some may not view Brett Connolly as a big loss, the fact of the matter is that he played solid bottom-six minutes for this club. Without him, a number of players will likely be thrust into bigger roles. Does that mean Jonathan Drouin? Hopefully. Does that mean Brenden Morrow? Hopefully not. The coaching staff has some decisions to make. Replacing Connolly’s good minutes won’t be as easy as some people think.
Aside from those points, tonight’s hockey game probably won’t be a very good one. The Sabres simply aren’t good enough to make for an entertaining game. Don’t take that as a slight – they’re just gearing up for a different kind of run than the Lightning. Once Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel arrives in Buffalo, the Sabres will bring a lot of excitement whenever they come to town.
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.