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Tampa Bay Lightning Look to Finish Off Their Home Stand Perfect

By Tasha St. Pierre

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The Tampa Bay Lightning look to finish off their four-game home stand in perfect fashion as they host Mark Giordano and the Calgary Flames.

When the doors open to the Amalie Arena this evening, the Tampa Bay Lightning will be playing host to the Calgary Flames for the second time this season.

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The good news is, this will be a very different Tampa Bay Lightning team than the Flames

faced last time. Rather than facing off with a team that was in the midst of one of the most difficult road trips you could possibly envision, the team will be well-rested and ready to rumble.

You see, when the Lightning met the Flames for the first time this season they were in the midst of a road trip that entailed the Bolts playing five games in eight days with two back-to-backs in a row. Now, the Bolts will have had four days to rest.

You would be surprised what a day away from the ice and a night of rest in your own bed will do for a player.

These two teams are fairly evenly matched when it comes to the scoreboard. There is one area that may serve as the deciding factor between these two teams; their special teams squad. The good news is, this is one of the areas that the Tampa Bay Lightning has excelled at this season.

Let’s take a look at the way the numbers break down between these two teams courtesy of ESPN.

FlamesBolts
Goals Per Game2.863.5
Goals Against Per Game2.212.58
Shots on Goal Per Game26.7929.25
Penalty Minutes Per Game10.439.58
Power Play Goals911
Power Play Percentage19.6%25%
Penalty Kill Percentage75%84.8%

As you can see, the Bolts have fared pretty well this season on special teams. With the man advantage, the Bolts find themselves fourth in the National Hockey League with a Power Play Percentage of 25%. Where this is going to pay out is the Flames find themselves in the bottom five in the league in Penalty Kill Percentage.

Considering the fact that the Flames have a slightly high Penalty Minute per Game average, this could be incredibly beneficial for the Bolts if given the opportunities.

Another thing that the Tampa Bay Lightning has at their disposal is one of the hottest line combinations in the game. The line of center Tyler Johnson, left wing Ondrej Palat and right wing Nikita Kucherov has been absolutely on fire over the course of the season.

Johnson and Kucherov find themselves in first and third place respectively on the team in points. Sandwiched in between them is the captain Steven Stamkos. Not far behind is Palat, who finds himself in sixth place with eight points.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have without a doubt faced more than their fair share of adversity this season. They have been overcome with injuries this season, being down three to four top guys at the same time. A couple of years ago, this would have been a giant problem for the Lightning.

Fortunately, this season the Tampa Bay Lightning has some incredible depth in all positions. This has allowed Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper to make the adjustments he needed to in order to ensure that the team has continued their winning ways in the face of injuries.

There is another position in tonight’s game that is going to provide an interesting dynamic; goaltending. Coming up against a goaltender like Jonas Hiller, providing he the one the team elects to run with, is not going to be a walk in the park.

So far this season, Hiller has played in 9 games with the Flames where he has gone 6-2-1. In that amount of time, he has a Goals Allowed Average of just 1.95 and a Save Percentage of .935.

On the other side of the ice, the Tampa Bay Lightning may elect to run with goaltender Ben Bishop between the pipes. So far this season, Bishop has played in ten games where he has gone 7-1-1 with a Goals Allowed Average of 2.45 and a Save Percentage of .912.

Bishop has taken some pretty cheap shots over the course of the last few games, like being completely bowled over by the Washington Capitals. The good news is, the defense has seemingly made it their mission to push back when someone takes a run at Bishop. This is something the team was seriously lacking last season.

One of the high points this season, at least for this Lightning fan, has been the improvement on the defense. They seem to be more aggressive both offensively and defensibly, they are blocking shots, and doing what they have to do to clear the zone. This is an incredible improvement from seasons past.

The addition of players like defenseman Anton Stralman has made such an impact so quickly this season. In addition to the obvious defensive benefits, he is in fifth place on the team in points with one goal and eight assists along with a plus-13 rating.

There are two Calgary players that the Lightning are going to have to watch out for. Captain Mark Giordano is tied for the top position on the team in points with defenseman T.J. Brodie with four goals and nine assists apiece. Closely behind them is center Jiri Hudler with three goals and seven assists for ten points.

If given the opportunity, any of them could cause major issues for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

If there is nothing else that can be said about this match up, it is definitely going to be an intense contest between two evenly matched teams. This means that there is going to be plenty of back and forth between the two of them, and plenty of opportunities for the young players to shine.

What do you think the score will be when the final buzzer sounds? Who do you think will be the standout in tonight’s game? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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