With goaltender Ben Bishop back in action after battling with injury, the Tampa Bay Lightning are set to take on the lowly New York Islanders tonight at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. This is the second of three meetings between the two foes this season; the Bolts took the first by a score of 3-2 in a shootout.
As much as the Islanders have struggled this year, their record over the last ten games is pretty good at 7-3-0. That stretch of play has seen them move all the way up to a tie for second last place in the Eastern Conference standings. It’s arguably fair to say that the playoffs are out of the question.
Even so, the Lightning can’t go about taking this Islanders team lightly. Back on December 17th in New York when Tampa grabbed that 3-2 shootout win, it was the Islanders who dominated long stretches of the action. The Bolts didn’t play a good hockey game that night, but somehow found a way to win thanks to two late goals from Valtteri Filppula.
Following a long bit of the schedule that saw them play an abundance of road games, it will be nice to see the Bolts back at the Forum. Interestingly, though, the team has lost three straight games on home ice. That needs to change. All season long, the Forum has been one hell of a tough place to play for opposing teams. If the Lightning can get back to their roots and stick to Jon Cooper’s game plan, it can be that way tonight.
In the good news department, Erik Erlendsson is reporting that Sami Salo will return from injury tonight after missing a handful of games with a lower body injury. Salo’s return comes one game after Ben Bishop triumphantly returned at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers. He stopped 33 of 34 shots fired his way that night and made it look easy. Unsurprisingly, he’ll get the start in net tonight.
This is a winnable game for the Lightning, but it’s going to take a good effort if they want to grab two points. While the Islanders do sit way down in the standings, they can’t be overlooked; Tampa Bay learned that back in December. Playing down to the opponent is something that just can't happen this evening. A team that boasts players like John Tavares and Kyle Okposo, who have tallied 56 and 46 points this season respectively, can take down just about any opponent on any given night. The Lightning will need to stay disciplined, and hopefully take advantage of New York’s big weakness in goal.
One final note. Victor Hedman is slated to play his 300th career game tonight. It’s been an absolute treat to watch him night in and night out over the last few years. Finally, he’s starting to get the league-wide recognition that he deserves.
Oh, and Stamkos skated in the morning skate today.
I'll be featured in Raw Charge's next 'Answer This!' feature, so stay tuned for that.
Until post game, thanks for reading.