The Tampa Bay Lightning completed the sweep in their season series with the New York Rangers last night with another big victory. Thanks in large part to stellar play from Tyler Johnson, Brett Connolly, and Victor Hedman, the Bolts battled their way to a 6-3 win, their fourth straight, and two more points in the standings. The ‘W’ moves Tampa’s record to 17-6-2, which puts them squarely in top spot overall in the NHL standings.
With that victory in their back pocket, the Lightning will now turn their attention to the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres, winners in five of their last six games, have moved all the way up the ladder to 27th overall in the league standings. Their underlying numbers aren’t very good, but somehow Buffalo continues to put up points on a more regular basis than teams like the Edmonton Oilers and Columbus Blue Jackets.
Even so, this is absolutely a ‘should win’ game for the Lightning. Having won four straight, the team has a great opportunity to make it five against a team that shouldn’t be competing for anything but Connor McDavid this season.
If the Sabres, the league’s worst possession club, are going to have any success tonight, they’ll have to take care of business against a juggernaut. The Lightning are the league’s highest scoring team, and don’t seem to be slowing down. When the league’s best offense goes up against one of the league’s worst defenses, things happen. This could be an interesting game.
After watching them beat the Rangers last night, it wouldn’t have been foolish to assume that Jon Cooper would stick with the same lineup this evening. According to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times, however, lineup changes are “likely.… He also indicates that they will be game time decisions. Unsurprisingly, Evgeni Nabokov is scheduled to get the start in net.
As said, the Lightning should win this game. They just have to go out and execute. There can’t be any excuses.
I’ll be back with a full, comprehensive game review blog later tonight. 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.