Short-Handed Lightning Meet Stingy Wild in Final Game of Road Trip
“Sometimes you’re the windshield
Sometimes you’re the bug
Sometimes it all comes together baby”
— Mark Knopfler, “The Bug,” from ON EVERY STREET (Dire Straits)
The unstoppable force meets the immovable object tonight when the Tampa Bay Lightning meets the Minnesota Wild in the finale of Tampa Bay’s already pyrrhically successful five-game road trip. The unstoppable Bolts’ offense has scored the third-most goals in the league this young season while the immovable Wild defense has allowed only four goals in five games, by far the stingiest defense in the NHL.
Something has got to give: will it be the swift-skating Lightning bugs buzzing around the net or the defensive windshield the Wild players have set up around their stellar (so far) goaltenders?
The puck will drop at 8 p.m. Tampa time in the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The game will be telecast locally on Sun Sports and radiocast on 970 WFLA. The live stream can be found on NHL GameCenter Live. “Bolts by the Bay” will be providing Twitter updates as well.
The Bolts come into the game fresh off a dominating 4-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets, a victory highlighted by rookie whiz Jonathan “Cool Hand” Drouin’s first NHL goal, Nikita Kucherov‘s three assists, and Ben Bishop‘s 40 saves, giving the Lightning an already-successful 3-1 record on this heretofore-Canadian road trip.
But these victories have come at a high price in terms of injuries, perhaps making them pyrrhic successes in the big picture. Forward J. T. Brown suffered an upper body injury (hopefully not a concussion) in last night’s game, positioned awkwardly when a shoulder check sent his head into the glass during the first period. Brown stayed down in the ice briefly before leaving the rink on his own power. No penalty was assessed on that dangerous play even though the officials found plenty of reasons — some of them actually visible to the naked eye — for calling myriad penalties throughout the rest of the game.
Hot-handed forward Brett Connolly suffered a lower-body hurt in the first period and also missed the remainder of the match. Neither Brown nor Connolly is expected to suit up tonight. They join forward Ryan Callahan, forward Alex Killorn, and defenseman Victory Hedman on the injury list. The only good news on the hospital report came with the return of defenseman Radko Gudas last night; he played a strong game and took on gigantor Dustin Byfuglien in a short but bloody fight that meant more medical care for Gudas. The bearded one quickly returned, continued to play tough. Forward Cedric Paquette made his season debut as an injury replacement against Winnipeg, providing some grit in front of the net, and is expected to play again tonight. Mike Blunden and Jonathan Marchessault have been called up from Syracuse to give the Lightning a full complement of 12 forwards. This will be the promising Marchessault’s debut with the Bolts.
The Bolts bring a 5-2-1 overall record into tonight’s match-up, their 11 points earning them second spot in the Atlantic Division behind the Montreal Canadiens. Only the Anaheim Ducks (29) and the San Jose Sharks (27) have scored more goals than the Lightning (25) this season. Captain Steven Stamkos leads the team with six goals (his eight total points have him on a point-per-game pace). Among the active skaters — injured players account for 10 of the goals — Ondrej Palat has scored three and Vlad Namestikov two.
Nineteen-year-old Drouin is also on a point-per-game pace with three points in three NHL games. Snipers Tyler Johnson, Valtteri Flippula, and Nikita Kucherov have only two goals among them, but they have all excelled as playmakers with six, five, and five assists respectively. Defenseman Anton Stralman, in addition to his steady and near-flawless play in front of the goalkeeper, has five helpers for the offense (and a +8 plus/minus that ties him for second in the NHL) as well; his two-way success puts him in the forefront of early-season team MVP talk.
Defensively, Tampa Bay has given up 16 goals in eight games, already a half-goal per game stingier than last year. Ben Bishop is 4-1-1 in net, with 1.98 GAA and a .929 save percentage. Evgeni Nabokov, expected to start tonight at the Lightning plays its third back-to-back series in just two weeks, is 1-1 with a 1.47 GAA and .936 save percentage.
As improved as the Bolts are showing on defense this season, nobody can touch what the Wild has accomplished on D. All three of the Wild’s victories have been shutouts and both losses have been 2-1 nail-biters. Second-year keeper Darcy Kuemper has tossed all three shutouts and absorbed one loss. His 0.50 GAA leads the NHL, as does his .980 save percentage. Kuemper has put long-time starter Niklas Backstrom on the bench, but even Backstrom has a decent 2.04 GAA in his lone appearance this season, one of those 2-1 losses.
Defensemen Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, and Marco Scandella have all been strong in boxing out offensive challenges by opponents and have great plus-minus stats to show for their efforts. Zach Parise, long-time Lightning nemesis from his days with the New Jersey Devils, is the primary Wild offensive spark so far with two goals and five points in five games. Captain Mikko Koivu has been quiet so far. Lightning-killer Thomas Vanek, who gave the Bolts nightmares whenever they played the Buffalo Sabres, has not gotten untracked as the big Minnesota free agent signing; he will be licking his lips when he hits the ice tonight, expecting to renew his feeding frenzy on the Lightning larder. And Matt Cooke, formerly of the Penguins, is always looking for the big hit.
The Lightning return to Tampa after this game for a four-game home stand beginning Tuesday against the Arizona Coyotes.
But tonight the bug and the windshield come together for the latest chapter in their archetypal battle for supremacy, with the Lightning Bugs hoping to blast their way through the previously immovable object in Minnesota to close out their road trip on a winning chirp.