Who: Tampa Bay Lightning (28-13-3, 59 points, 2nd place Atlantic Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (21-14-9, 51 points, 5th place Metropolitan Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: Broadcast locally Sportsnet
Pittsburgh and The Spot, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: This is the first game of a three-game homestead for the Pens, who are back at PPG Paints to take on the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday and the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. Then it’s off to the West Coast, where the Pens are taking on the Seattle Kraken, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks in a busy six-day span.
Opponent Track: The Lightning are heading into this matchup as the hottest team in the NHL. Tampa Bay has won 10 straight games, most recently claiming outscoring the Philadelphia Flyers by a combined 12-3 in a two-game series sweep on Saturday and Monday.
Hidden Stat: The Penguins have points in eight of their last 11 games against the Lightning (they’re 7-3-1 over that stretch, courtesy of Pens PR).
Getting to know the Lightning
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Gage Goncalves – Brayden Point (?) – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Jake Guentzel
Zemgus Girgensons – Yanni Gourde – Pontus Holmberg
Nick Paul – Dominic James – Oliver Bjorkstrand
DEFENSEMEN
J.J. Moser / Darren Raddysh
Charle-Edouard D’Astous / Erik Cernak
Declan Carlile / Maxwell Crozier
Goalies: Jonas Johansson (started last night), Andrei Vasilevskiy
Potential scratches: Simon Lundmark, Curtis Douglas, Jack Finley
Injured Reserve: Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, Emil Lilleberg, Scott Sabourin
- Jonas Johansson made 20 saves during the Lightning’s Monday win over the Flyers, so it could be Andrei Vasilevskiy getting the nod against the Penguins. Vasilevskiy has a .912 save percentage, 2.33 goals against average and 18-7-2 record in 27 starts this season, although for what it’s worth his numbers are slightly worse in 20 career matchups with the Penguins (.904 SV%, 3.00 GAA, 12-7-1 record).
- Brayden Point appeared to suffer a leg injury while scoring on the power play against the Flyers last night. He did not return after leaving the game in the second period.
- Lightning coach Jon Cooper said after the win he didn’t have an update on Point but that the center would travel to Pittsburgh, per the Tampa Bay Times’ Eduardo A. Encina. If he is sidelined, the Lightning will have to break up what has recently been a dominant top three of Point flanked by Nikita Kucherov and recent top-line addition Gage Concalves.
Season stats
via hockeydb (Does not include last night’s game)
- Nikita Kucherov is heading into this game ranked behind only Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini for the league production lead with 65 points (22 goals, 43 assists) in 39 games. He most recently recorded a goal and assist against the Flyers on Monday to tie a Steven Stamkos franchise record with his ninth straight multi-point game. The Lightning winger has an absurd 25 points (10-15—25) over his last 10 games.
- Kucherov is not the only Lightning player on a hot streak. Defenseman Darren Raddysh (4-8—12) and winger Brandon Hagel (4-6—10) are both on six-game point streaks. Former Penguin Jake Guentzel is on a five-game streak (2-6—8) of his own.
- The Penguins, recently guilty of giving up early goals, need to watch out for a team that just scored 1:10 and 0:33, respectively, into the first and second periods of Monday’s win over the Flyers.
- The Lightning are overall a very efficient shooting team. They’ve recorded more than 30 shots on goal just twice during this 10-game win streak. Overall, this team ranks second in the NHL in goals per game (3.57) despite coming in 20th in shots per game (27.3).
- Monday’s victory marked the 600th career win in 1,005 games for Lightning coach Jon Cooper, making him the second-fastest coach to Scotty Bowman (1,002 games) to hit the milestone.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Tommy Novak – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell
Ben Kindel – Evgeni Malkin – Yegor Chinakhov
Anthony Mantha – Kevin Hayes – Justin Brazeau
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Brett Kulak / Kris Letang
Ryan Shea / Jack St. Ivany
Goalies: Stuart Skinner, Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Bryan Rust (day-to-day injury), Connor Clifton, Rafael Harvey-Pinard
IR: Filip Hallander, Rutger McGroarty
- Given the Penguins’ shutout loss to the Bruins with Kevin Hayes centering the second line, Dan Muse could potentially go for some more line shuffling before taking on the hottest team in the league.
- That could be helped by bringing back Bryan Rust, although the Pens didn’t provide any updates on his status Monday. The winger has missed the last two games with what the team has described as a day-to-day injury.
- Caleb Jones was re-assigned from IR to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Monday as part of a conditioning loan.
- Erik Karlsson needs just one more helper to hit 30 on the season, as well as to become the only active NHL player with 700 career assists.
- Sidney Crosby is one point away from hitting 50 on the season. That would mark his sixth straight year hitting the milestone, and would tie him with Alex Ovechkin for the most 50-point seasons (19) among any active players, per Penguins PR.
