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Fresh From Successful Road Trip, Tampa Bay Lightning Hope To Extend Buffalo’s Misery

By Angelo Resciniti

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Baby, it’s cold outside.

Like 4 degrees Fahrenheit in Buffalo, New York, Friday morning.

That the Buffalo Sabres played at Carolina against the Hurricanes on Thursday and sleigh on over to Tampa for a back-to-back against the Lightning on Friday is a good thing for the Sabres, right? Except for the back-to-back part. And Buffalo winning only once in its last 10 games. And the Tatankas owning the third fewest wins in the NHL with 14. And the cold-cutting Swords having scored the fewest goals in the world. And the Sabres carrying the worst goal differential in the league at -65. -65. Now THAT’S a wind chill factor that can freeze a team to the bone.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning hope to give the cold shoulder to the recently frigid Sabres in the toasty home confines of Amalie Arena Friday evening. The puck drops just after 7:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the Sunshine Network and radiocast on 970/WFLA AM.

Even though the outside temperature will be in the relatively balmy low 50s when the game cranks up, the Bolts intend to make sure it stays cold — “ICE COLD” as sung by Outkast in “Hey, Ya” — inside for the shivering Sabres.

That’s easy to forecast when you have the hottest team in the league sucking all the warmth out of opponents.

The Lightning suffered their own cold spell in early December, struggling to score goals and win games. They even lost to Buffalo, 2-1, in a shootout, wasting a terrific outing for oft-maligned backup Evgeni Nabokov. And despite rebounding with a 5-0 win over the Sabres a couple of nights later, a game highlighted by Ben Bishop‘s only shutout performance so far this season, the Bolts struggled to just three wins in ten games.

Since then the Bolts have been on fire, winning six of seven, including a 5-1 New Year’s Eve victory over these same Sabres, this win led by rookie goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Lightning then finished up a four-game road trip with back-to-back wins over Ottawa and Montreal, the latter a stirring 4-2 triumph Tuesday evening in the house the Habs built.

Tampa Bay’s been at rest since then, but making sure not to rest on its laurels. The Bolts stand alone in first place in the entire Eastern Conference of the NHL with a 26-12-4 record and 56 points, two points more than those crazy good teams from Montreal and Pittsburgh. The Lightning have scored the most goals in the league, 138, and own the third-best goal differential at +28. Did we mention that Buffalo possesses the worst goal differential in the universe at -65? Ice cold.

The Lightning also boasts the hottest line in the league right now, The Triplets, led by Tyler Johnson, who scored two goals in each of the last two games, Nikita Kucherov, whose laser-beam passes have set up so many of TJ’s scores, and Ondrej Palat, so steady on his feet and with his stick controlling the puck and setting up plays. The Triplets have amassed 24 points in the last four games (7 goals, 17 assists). This trio ranks 1st, 1st, and 4th in the league for plus-minus.

And now Steven Stamkos has joined The Triplets on the first power play unit; together they’ve turned a moribund outfit into a veritable goal-scoring machine, tallying twice with the man advantage against the Canadiens and hoping to stay smokin’ versus the Sabres.

Defensively, however, the Bolts are still reeling from the loss of Radko Gudas, a loss that will probably span the rest of the regular season. The hard-hitting Czech blue-liner underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Tuesday morning. The surgery was successful, but recovery could take 3-4 months, meaning Gudas might not rejoin the team until the (anticipated) playoff run, if at all, for this season.

Rookie Nikita Nesterov and often-scratched Mark Barberio have filled in ably for Gudas the last couple of games, but the slick skaters and snaky puck handlers are not known for their grit nor for their hip checks nor for their beards, so the pair can not really replace Gudas. That’s why big-bodied Luke Witkowski is expected to rejoin Tampa Bay within the next couple of games to add some pain production to the defensive unit.

This match-up is the 4th of five meetings this season between the Bolts and the Sabres. Buffalo faced a different Lightning goaltender in each of the first three games, and all three acquitted themselves with distinction, as described earlier. Ben Bishop figures to be in goal for this game. Bish has fallen into a weird pattern of giving up early goals and then turning unbeatable later in games recently. He would like to be a 60-minute guy this time out, maybe even picking up that second shutout of the season by freezing the Sabres.

Jhonas Enroth played in goal for the Sabres in Thursday’s 5-2 loss to Carolina, so expect Michal Neuvirth in net against the Bolts. Neuvirth is 3-10-1 with a 3.46 GAA this season backing up Enroth and will have the daunting task of stoning Tampa Bay and ending Buffalo’s six-game losing streak.

At least Buffalo still has Latvian superstar Zemgus Girgensons to celebrate. The stylish center, who would be 7th on the Lightning in scoring with 20 points, will start the NHL All-Star game — along with five Chicago Blackhawks — thanks to fan voting. Hockey fans in Latvia and Buffalo and the Windy City must be staying indoors quite a bit this cold winter, voting and voting and voting…

Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright…ICE COLD.

That’s how the Bolts like their serving of Buffalo Sabres.

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