Tampa Bay Lightning Hope To Continue Success Against The Florida Panthers

The Tampa Bay Lightning look to continue their recent successes against their in-state rival Florida Panthers tonight at the Amalie Arena.

The Tampa Bay Lightning has had a pretty successful week thus far. The Lightning has won three of the four home games they have played on their current six game home stand thus far, all three of the wins coming from all-too-important divisional opponents.

It is this kind of play that earned Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop the Third Star of the Week from the National Hockey League.

Now, the Tampa Bay Lightning look to continue their string of successes tomorrow night as they swing open the doors to the Amalie Arena and play host to the Lightning’s in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers.

While they may have a tough road ahead of them, the Florida Panthers have not yet been mathematically eliminated from a Wild Card spot in the 2014-15 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In fact, now that the Ottawa Senators have temporarily knocked the Boston Bruins out of the last Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, the Florida Panthers are only four points shy of the “big, bad” Bruins and being in contention for that last spot.

As we said, it will be a tough road for them, but not an impossible one. The part of all of this that matters most to the Tampa Bay Lightning is that this is going to make the Panthers a desperate team that is hungry for a win. As you all know by now, this makes a team all that much more dangerous.

The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers enter into tomorrow night’s matchup under very much the same pretenses. The last opponent for both teams has been the Boston Bruins, and both teams were able to deliver the agony of defeat to the Bruins.

Much like the Lightning, the Panthers were also able to make short work of the Detroit Red Wings just two nights prior to their meeting with the Bruins.

If the Tampa Bay Lightning wants to keep their recent string of successes rolling when the Panthers come into town, there are just a few things that they are going to need to accomplish. One of the most important things is that they need to find a way to stay out of the penalty box.

The Lightning has this nasty habit of finding themselves in completely avoidable situations that end with them sitting in the penalty box. This opens the door for the other team to make a run at the net with an extra attacker. You can only do something like this so many times before the door opens too widely and your opponent slams the door in your face.

Another thing the Lightning will need to be mindful of in tomorrow night’s encounter is neutralizing Panthers’ center Nick Bjugstad and left wing Jonathan Huberdeau. These two currently lead the Florida Panthers in points; Bjugstad has 24 goals and 19 assists for a total of 43 points and the young Huberdeau has 11 goals and 32 assists, also for 43 points.

As most of you know by now, the Tampa Bay Lightning has pair of players of their own that are poised to be pretty dangerous to those Stinkin’ Panthers. Lightning captain Steven Stamkos and center Tyler Johnson lead the Lightning in points so far this season.

The captain, who scored his 40^th goal on Friday night against the Detroit Red Wings, has scored 40 goals and 26 assists this season for a total of 66 points. On the other hand, Johnson has 25 goals and 41 assists, also with 66 points to accompany his plus-32 rating.

The Florida Panthers have certainly had some complications in net this season, but there is no denying that goaltender Roberto Luongo has been putting on a good show for Florida fans. In the 54 games he’s played this season, Luongo’s maintained a record of 25-16-11 with a Goals Allowed Average of 2.32 and a Save Percentage of .923.

On the other side of the ice, Ben Bishop has truly been holding it down for the Tampa Bay Lightning. While his win/loss record is significantly different than Luongo’s, their stats aren’t much different. In the 55 games Bishop has played this season, he’s maintained a record of 36-11-4 with a Goals Allowed Average of 2.31 and a Save Percentage of .916.

If tomorrow night’s encounter comes down to a battle of the goaltenders, which we’re not quite sure it will, but if it does it will certainly be an interesting battle.

There are playoff implications for both teams in this encounter, which means that everything is on the line. This makes for some rather exciting hockey that we are pretty sure you won’t want to miss a moment of. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. at the Amalie Arena. Are you ready to Be The Thunder once again?

Next: Ben Bishop Named The Third Star of the Week by the NHL

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