Having lost two of their last three games, the Tampa Bay Lightning will look to get things back on track tonight when they take on the Washington Capitals at Amalie Arena.
Stunning losses to the Buffalo Sabres and Columbus Blue Jackets sent shockwaves through Bolts Nation. A team that fancies itself as a cup contender shouldn’t lose to two of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference in the same week. What looked like a relatively light stretch of games has since turned into a bit of a battle for the Lightning.
With those recent losses, Tampa no longer finds itself sitting alone atop the Atlantic Division. The Detroit Red Wings have surged up the standings and sit tied with the Lightning at 39 points through 28 games. The two points up for grabs in tonight’s game against the Capitals could mean a lot.
Specific to this evening’s contest, this is the second of three scheduled meetings between the Lightning and Capitals this season. Just over one month ago, on November 1st, the Bolts snuck past Washington with a 4-3 win. Jason Garrison scored the game-winning goal on that night.
If the morning skate lines are any indication, it looks like there will be at least one minor lineup tweak tonight. Jonathan Drouin, the third overall pick in 2013, will sit as a healthy scratch, while J.T. Brown will get back in the lineup. Mark Barberio is expected to join Drouin in the popcorn-eating-gallery.
With that in mind, tonight’s lineup will likely look something like this:
Alex Killorn-Steven Stamkos-Ryan Callahan Ondrej Palat-Tyler Johnson-Nikita Kucherov Cedric Paquette-Valtteri Filppula-Brett Connolly Brenden Morrow-Brian Boyle-J.T. Brown
Victor Hedman-Anton Stralman Jason Garrison-Andrej Sustr Matt Carle-Radko Gudas
Ben Bishop Evgeni Nabokov
As expected, Bishop is scheduled to get the start in net.
That’s all for now, as I've got to get back to work. As always, thanks for reading.