For the first time since being swept by them in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal, the Tampa Bay Lightning will meet the Montreal Canadiens tonight. This is the first of five meetings between the Atlantic Division rivals this year, with the other four all taking place in the New Year.
It would be quite hyperbolic of me to suggest that tonight’s contest is a ‘must win’ for the Lightning. The reality is that there will still be 79 games left on the schedule for the Bolts once this one is in the books.
Even so, it’s not unfair to say that this matchup is important.
The Canadiens are already off to a torrid start in 2014-15. Through three games played, they are a perfect 3-0-0; that includes a regulation victory over Toronto and two shootout wins over Washington and Philadelphia. Their most recent ‘W,’ which came versus the Flyers, is of particular note. In that game, Montreal was down 3-0 before battling back to force overtime at then a shootout. It doesn’t seem like this year’s Canadiens team is any less resilient than the one that made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Final last year.
With that 3-0-0 start in their back pocket, the Canadiens already sit comfortably atop the Atlantic Division standings. That’s one of the things that makes tonight’s game so important. A Tampa loss tonight would put the Lightning five (!) points back in the division standings. It may not sound like a lot, but Montreal doesn’t look like a team that will be giving up much ground as the season moves along.
Beyond all that, the Lightning likely want to show Montreal that they can beat them. Last year’s playoff sweep wasn’t fun for any of the Lightning players. This is a new season. The reset button has been pushed. I’m not going to pretend that a victory tonight will serve as ‘revenge’ or anything like that. It won’t. What it might do, however, is give the Bolts some confidence moving forward.
Based on what we saw at morning skate today, it looks like Jon Cooper will dress the same lineup once again. For those of you who don’t know, here are the combinations courtesy of tweets from Erik Erlendsson:
#tblightning lines not in order: Killorn-Filppula-Johnson; Palat-Stamkos-Callahan; Kucherov-Namestnikov-Brown(ov)-Morrow-Boyle-Connolly
— Erik Erlendsson (@erlendssonTBO) October 13, 2014#tblightning D pairings: Hedman-Stralman; Carle-Sustr; Garrison-Gudas; Barberio-Brewer-Schleper
— Erik Erlendsson (@erlendssonTBO) October 13, 2014*Update* – Erlendsson is reporting that Eric Brewer will play tonight, and that Andrej Sustr will sit. Some of you may be confused by that “Schleper… name on the fourth defense pairing. No, the Bolts didn’t go out and sign a new free agent. No, this Schleper isn’t some new prospect you’ve never heard of. Rather, the Lightning welcomed Anne Schleper, a USA Women’s Hockey Team forward who won Silver at the Olympics, to their skate today.
She won’t be playing tonight.
While this game is only one of 82, it holds a special significance as mentioned above. A good performance from the Lightning will help them keep pace in the Atlantic, and give them a confidence boost moving forward. Here’s hoping they do enough to grab a win.
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.