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Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Nashville Predators: The Best In The East Battles The Best In The West

By Angelo Resciniti

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“Are you ready, hey, are you ready for this?
Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?
….Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust”
— QUEEN, “Another One Bites the Dust”

The Tampa Bay Lightning hosted the then No. 1 team in the NHL, the Anaheim Ducks, Sunday evening, and motored past the flailing Ducks in the dust trail of a 5-3 victory.

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Tonight the Bolts take to the ice in the Music City against the new No. 1 team in the NHL, the Nashville Predators, in hopes of continuing their stellar play against the best the National Hockey League has to offer. The puck drops just after 8 p.m. Tampa time. The game will be cablecast on Sun Sports and radiocast on 970/WFLA.

The Tampa Bay squad thus continues an all-West month of February that has already included wins over Dallas and Anaheim as well an overtime loss to St. Louis — 5 of a possible 8 points so far.  After Nashville the Bolts still have to meet the St. Louis Blues (again), San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Kings (again), Anaheim Ducks (again), Arizona Coyotes, and Avalanche before concluding the shortest — and longest — month against the near-mythic Chicago Blackhawks.

Biting the dust can certainly go in either direction, but the fans will be hanging on the edge of their seats as this best in the east vs. best in the west series of match-ups hits the ice.

Nashville has won four of its first five games in February en route to a 35-12-6 record and a league-leading 76 points. The Predators beat the New York Rangers and Florida Panthers this weekend and took the top spot from Anaheim (75 points) courtesy of the Bolts’ feather-dusting of the Ducks.

The Preds are paced on offense by 20-year-old center Filip Forsberg, who has 18 goals and 48 points in his first full NHL season. Mike Ribeiro, Roman Josi, captain Shea Weber, Colin Wilson, and James Neal have all amassed 30 or more points so far; this balanced scoring attack will form a daunting challenge to Tampa Bay’s depleted defensive unit. And that’s without much of an offensive contribution from one-time Lightning nemesis Olli Jokinen, who has but six points in 48 games.

Defensively the Predators are led by Weber, Josi, Seth Jones, Ryan Ellis, and Mattias Eckholm on the blue line along with significant two-way play by the scoring stars as well as veteran center Mike Fisher, who recently returned from a long injury layoff. All of those players sit on the plus side of the plus-minus scale, part of the reason for the team’s lopsided winning record.

Paul Gaustad, whom Lightning fans may remember from his feisty years in Buffalo, along with Weber and Neal, are the more physical of the Nashville skaters.

But most will agree the No. 1 reason Nashville has risen to the No. 1 spot in the NHL is the play of goaltender Pekka Rinne. Rinne, who recently missed three weeks due to a knee injury, has put together a Vezina-worthy season with a jaw-dropping 30-7-2 record, three shutouts, a 2.02 goals against average, and a .929 save percentage. The Finnish flash leads NHL goalies in GAA and wins and stands second in save percentage. Bolts scorers will have their work cut out for them against Rinne, who has left many a sniper feeling like dust in the wind.

Tampa Bay, meanwhile, upped its record to 34-16-5 with Sunday’s win, edging ahead of the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens in the East with 73 points to their 71. The Lightning’s point total is third best in the league behind Nashville (76) and Anaheim (75). The Bolts still lead the NHL in goals with 179 and the East in plus-minus with +34.

The Triplets line of Nikita Kucherov (+29), Tyler Johnson (+27), and Ondrej Palat (+26), owners of three of the top four NHL spots in plus-minus, have returned to the scoreboard in a big way the last couple of games to end a brief scoring drought. The No. 1 line of Steven Stamkos, Ryan Callahan, and Valtteri Filppula has also been productive of late, giving Tampa Bay two hot lines to challenge Rinne and the Nashville D.

On defense, the Bolts continue to weather the injuries to Radko Gudas (out until April or May), Matt Carle (out a few more weeks), and Jason Garrison (day-to-day but doubtful for tonight). Rookies Nikita Nesterov (+4) and Luke Witkowski (+2) have generally held their own while Andrej Sustr (+7) and Mark Barberio (-4) have thrived in the extra minutes the injuries have forced them to play. Victor Hedman (+12) and Anton Stralman (+20) have provided steady leadership and stalwart play. Witkowski, brought aboard in part because of his physical style, participated in his first NHL regular-season fight on Sunday, battling Anaheim tough guy Patrick Maroon to a draw that drew a complimentary helmet tap from Maroon for the rookie’s grit. Witkowski’s only other NHL fight came in a preseason loss last September — to Nashville.

Ben Bishop is Tampa Bay’s answer to Pekka Rinne, and he has been a strong answer indeed. Big Ben has a sweet 27-9-3 record in net so far, owning the 5th most wins in the league. His 2.38 GAA and .912 save percentage are both down from his Vezina level stats from last year, but he has still made a highlight reel of great saves under duress to help the Lightning to the top perch in the East. And if Bishop falters, rookie Andrei Vasilevskiy, with a sick 1.96 GAA and .934 GAA in his first six NHL games, is ready to answer the call.

The Bolts bring a shaky 12-11-4 road record into Nashville, where the Preds are an unreal 21-3-1. But Tampa Bay’s proud Davids feel ready to assert themselves against the biggest Goliath in the West.

Some dust will be swirling on the Music City stage tonight.

“There are plenty of ways that you can hurt a man
And bring him to the ground
You can beat him, you can cheat him
You can treat him bad and leave him when he’s down”

— QUEEN, “Another One Bites the Dust”

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