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Tampa Bay Lightning Need To Rebound Tonight Against The Sabres

By Tasha St. Pierre

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The Tampa Bay Lightning went into Tuesday night’s encounter against Brian Giota and the Buffalo Sabres as the hand down favorite. Unfortunately, after three periods of play, a five-minute overtime period, and the shootout the Lightning would ultimately fall 2-1.

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Tonight, as the Tampa Bay Lightning return home to the Amalie Arena they have a chance to set the record straight and stop the currently hot Sabres cold in their tracks. When the doors open tonight, they will face off once again with the Buffalo Sabres in the back half of their home-and-home series.

I have said this in numerous occasions before, but this is one of those circumstances where it bears saying once again. The Lightning simply cannot underestimate a team like the Sabres. Their win/loss record is certainly not indicative of the amount of talent that they have on their bench.

Players like Tyler Ennis, who currently leads the Sabres in points, has scored four points in his last five games; despite coming up empty against the Bolts on Tuesday. At the same time, there is no denying the amazing shot he was able to pull off last week against the Montreal Canadiens was one of the most incredible things we’d ever seen.

The same thing can be said about Sabres center Zemgus Girgensons. Much like Ennis, Girgensons has four points in his last five games; one of which was against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

There is just one thing that some people seem to forget about the Tampa Bay Lightning. As Bolts By The Bay Staff Writer Dan Herrejon pointed out the other day, the Lightning is so much more than just our captain Steven Stamkos.

We have four full lines of players who are highly skilled at finding the back of the net; two of those lines could easily be considered the “top line.” The best part of this whole thing is, when you have as many players who can find their way to the back of the net, there is no need for the “top line.”

Speaking of our captain, if Stamkos is able to make his way to the back of the net twice in tonight’s encounter he will reach a new milestone in his career; he will have netted his 250th National Hockey League goal.

According to Lightning Beat Writer Bryan Burns, Lightning fans will more than likely see goaltender Ben Bishop in net tonight for the Bolts. Bishop is in the middle of an already record-breaking season for the Lightning where he has gone 15-3-2 in the 21 games he’s played thus far.

In his 21 games, he has maintained a Save Percentage of .917 and a Goals Allowed Average of 2.30.

On the other side of the ice, we will be seeing Sabres goaltender Jhonas Enroth between the pipes. Enroth has gone 6-9-1 in the 16 games he’s played this season with a Save Percentage of .916 and a Goals Allowed Average of 2.96.

There are going to be a few key points to the Bolts coming home with a victory tonight. The first on our list, which is most important, is the cessation of the overpassing that the Lightning has seemingly fallen back into. While I have always been a proponent of quality over quantity, but at some point you just have to take the shot.

The other thing that the Bolts are going to have to do is find a way to keep themselves out of the penalty box. There is no denying that the officiating this season has been less-than-adequate, but this is something that we all know. This means that they need to be mindful of the things they do in order to minimize the potential.

The Lightning have been struggling on the Penalty Kill as of late, and the best thing they can do for themselves if they can’t find a way to pull it together on the Penalty Kill is to simply keep themselves out of the box.

All of us here in the Bolts Nation know that the Lightning has everything they could possibly need at their disposal in order to get the job done. Knowing that they are heading out on the ice tonight at the Amalie Arena just makes it all that much better. They will have their Thunder by their side.

Once the skates are laced, the sticks are taped, and they make their way down the tunnel, the only thing that is left to do is give it all they have. If they are able to do that and we know in our hearts that we will be just fine.

The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. Are you ready to Be The Thunder?

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