Having won five of their last six games, the Tampa Bay Lightning (10-4-0) will look to stay hot as they take on the injury plagued Edmonton Oilers (4-10-2) tonight at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. The game will feature a coaching duel between two men who were red hot American Hockey League commodities at this time last year. Both Dallas Eakins and Jon Cooper are part of that next wave of coaches ready to make an impact at the National Hockey League level.
After defeating the St. Louis Blues on Saturday by a score of 4-2, the Lightning were rewarded with a fairly lengthy four day break from action. Even with the time off, the Lightning did not lose any ground in the Atlantic Division standings; the team still sits in top spot. Aiming to build on what has become a very impressive run to start the season, the Bolts will be looking to take advantage of an Edmonton team that is lacking confidence and some big name contributors.
The Oilers, for their part, head into tonight’s game having lost five of their last six tilts. The only victory in that stretch came on Thursday night in Sunrise, as they managed to squeak by the Panthers in a overtime. Simply put, the start to the season for the Oilers has been anything but pretty. Without players like Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Sam Gagner, among others, for stretches of time, the Oilers haven’t really had the chance to play with a full roster yet this season. While it’s easy to look at their record and snicker, ask yourself what the Lightning would look like without names like Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis, and Victor Hedman. It wouldn’t be pretty. NHL teams aren’t built to withstand the losses the Oilers have endured so far this year.
While the injury bug has certainly hampered the Oilers’ chances to make anything of this 2013-14 campaign thus far, the team’s issues extend further than that. The play of goaltenders Devan Dubnyk and Jason Labarbera, in particular, has been a huge detriment to the group's ability to put up points in the standings. Sporting a 3.87 goals-against average and a 0.877 save percentage, Dubnyk simply isn’t playing at a level that gives his team a chance to win. To put his numbers in perspective, consider that the Oilers are on pace to allow more goals against this season than the Lightning did in 2011-12.
With that in mind, you can bet that the Lightning’s offensive guns are salivating at the opportunity to feast upon the league’s worst defensive team. The Lightning’s top line of Martin St. Louis, Steven Stamkos, and Alex Killorn heads into tonight’s game as one of the hottest lines in hockey. Stamkos has compiled ten points in his last six games, Killorn has notched five points in his last two games, and St. Louis is chugging along with 16 points in 14 games to start the year. When you add in the Lightning’s secondary scoring from the likes of Valtteri Filppula, Teddy Purcell, and others, it’s really not all that surprising to see the team up near the top of the conference standings.
As easy as it might be to look past the Oilers, the Lightning must remain focused if they want to grab a victory. Even with the struggles they've had, the Oilers still boast a number of weapons that can strike against any team in the league. Like the Lightning, the Oilers have a lot of speed on their roster and they know how to use it. Tonight’s game will provide the Lightning’s defense, which has struggled against quick attack teams at times over the last few years, with a huge challenge.
At the end of the day, here’s hoping the Lightning give the crowd at the Forum something to cheer about on Thursday night. It’s been four days since the team’s last game, and everyone in Bolts Nation is ready to be the thunder. I’ll be back later today with lineup notes as they get released.
* Taylor Hall will be back in the Edmonton Oilers lineup tonight.
* Ben Bishop will get the start in net for the Lightning.
As always, thanks for reading.