Bolts by the Bay
Fansided

Tampa Bay Lightning Need To Rebound Against Conference Contenders

By Tasha St. Pierre

facebooktwitterreddit

The Tampa Bay Lightning has found themselves in an all-too-familiar situation thanks to that pesky little injury (and illness) bug.

More from Lightning News

After a stressful game last night against the New Jersey Devils, Nikita Kucherov was able to capitalize on the situation and take the game to overtime, but it was Devils goaltender Keith Kinkaid that would earn the Devils the 3-2 win in the shootout.

Unfortunately, the Tampa Bay Lightning don’t have very long to sit back and contemplate what went wrong in that encounter, even though I am sure that we all have our opinions on this one. Tonight, the Lightning roll into Uniondale to the Nassau Coliseum to go head-to-head with John Tavares and the New York Islanders.

This will be the third and final time these two teams will meet this season.

If the Tampa Bay Lightning want to walk out of the Nassau Coliseum for the last time ever with a win, they are going to have to bring their A game with them. The Isles have a lot of offensive firepower at the ready, and if we aren’t equally as prepared on the defense, then this is going to be an incredibly long night.

Captain John Tavares and right wing Kyle Okposo are tied for first place on the Isles with 27 points apiece. Right on their heels is center Brock Nelson with 26.

On the other side of the ice, the Lightning have their big three who have all gone above and beyond so far this season. At the top of the list is Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, who sits with 19 goals and 17 assists for a total of 36 points.

Right on his tail is two members of the line that has become known as “The Triplets.” In second place on the team is Tyler Johnson with 10 goals and a team-leading 23 assists for a total of 33 points. Behind him is right wing Nikita Kucherov with 13 goals and 17 assists for a grand total of 30 points.

Oh, did we forget to mention that Johnson and Kucherov both have plus/minus ratings of almost plus-20? Johnson has a plus-19 and Kucherov is keeping pace with a plus-18.

Now, there are couple of keys to tonight’s game that the Lightning are going to have to nail down early if they want to come home to the Amalie Arena with a win.

The first of which is going to be their special teams. No matter how much we all want to ignore it and hope that it’ll go away, it is the giant elephant in the corner of the room. Not only have they not been able to capitalize on the Power Play opportunities that have come their way, but the Penalty Kill has been on the skids as well.

The good news here is that the Islanders’ Penalty Kill is no better than ours, so it won’t be much of an uphill battle to get to where they need to be. The Isles currently have a Penalty Kill of 71.7% as opposed to the 80.4% held by the Bolts.

The other key that the Bolts are going to have to be mindful of is their Shots on Goal. While they always seem to make up some ground in the third period, they are going to have to keep their foot on the gas for an entire 60 minutes if they want the desired result tonight.

Something like two Shots on Goal in the first period simply isn’t going to cut it against the Islanders.

Now that the Lightning has hit a few bumps in the road, they find themselves slipping in the standings. Who is it that occupies the second place position in the Eastern Conference just above the Lightning? Ding, ding, ding…we have a winner! The New York Islanders.

At this point, we are tied with the Isles at 44 points. Two points in tonight’s encounter would put them back on pace with the Pittsburgh Penguins who currently have 46 points. The even better news is that this is who we face when we return to the Amalie Arena on Tuesday night.

This is a prime opportunity to get our standing back.

Now, before you say it let me digress…I know this is still very early in the season to be discussing the standings; however, if you don’t be mindful of your positioning now, when the final few weeks comes about you may find yourself with an insurmountable amount of ground to make up. That’s just not the position we want to find ourselves in.

The battle in between the pipes tonight is going to come down to two incredibly hot young goaltenders. Andrei Vasilevskiy will find himself guarding the net for the Lightning tonight as Jaroslav Halak will be defending the pipes for the Isles.

Halak has been doing pretty well for himself this season. Thus far, he has gone 17-6-0 with a Goals Allowed Average of .918.

On the other side of the ice, Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up his first ever NHL win in his first NHL start on Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers. This gave Vasilevskiy a GAA of just 1.00 and a Save Percentage of .958.

There is no denying that this kid is a beast between the pipes. His record for the Syracuse Crunch will tell you all you need to know about that. At the same time, there is a big difference in the level in play between the AHL and the NHL, but we will say that he seems to be adapting very well.

The Tampa Bay Lightning know what they have to do. We all understand that they have been dealt the short end of the stick when it comes to their scheduling this season.

The sheer amount of back-to-back series that they have been forced to face thus far is utterly ridiculous, but this is what they are going to have to overcome if they want to find themselves in a favorable position when the post season starts.

The good news is, we all know that they can overcome anything when they put their minds to it. Let’s hope their minds are all on the same page as they head into the Nassau Coliseum for the final time tonight.

Also, it should be noted that tonight’s encounter between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the New York Islanders will be number 500 for Ryan Callahan. We can’t think of any better way to commemorate the occasion than with bringing two points home to Hockey Paradise.

The puck drops at 7:00 p.m. Are you ready to Be The Thunder?

More from Bolts by the Bay

Home/Lightning News