Tampa Bay Lightning Look To Extend Win Streak Against Colorado Avalanche
The Tampa Bay Lightning charge into the Pepsi Center in Denver in the hopes of extending their recent win streak against the Colorado Avalanche.
The Tampa Bay Lightning may have had a few lucky breaks over the course of their recent back-to-back weekend series, but in a time where points matter the most the Tampa Bay Lightning has seemingly found a way to win games. Tomorrow night, the Tampa Bay Lightning will be preparing to face their next task. The Bolts will roll into the Pepsi Center to take on the Colorado Avalanche.
While these two teams may be fairly evenly matched when it comes to their rankings in their respective divisions, bringing home the two points in Denver is not going to be the easy task some may think. Much like the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Avalanche has quite a few players more than capable of sinking the puck in the back of the net. This is a topic we’ll get to in just a little while.
First, let’s have a little discussion about the Tampa Bay Lightning’s struggles on special teams this season. The Lightning had four opportunities with the man advantage on Saturday night against the Vancouver Canucks. Unfortunately, the Lightning were unable to capitalize on a single one of their opportunities.
One of the biggest challenges the Tampa Bay Lightning has faced this season when it comes to the Power Play is the lack of shots taken during the man advantage. There were some opportunities in which the Lightning failed to register a single shot on the Power Play. As we have said before, you fail to score 100 percent of the time in the shots you fail to take.
The Tampa Bay Lightning may not be struggling quite as bad on the Penalty Kill as they do on the Power Play, but on more than one occasion the Tampa Bay Lightning has opened the door and allowed the opponent to walk right into the zone and ultimately into the back of the net. The Lightning will have to be extremely cautious as they face the Colorado Avalanche in Denver tomorrow night.
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Right now, the Colorado Avalanche are currently ranked fifth in the National Hockey League on the Power Play. If the 149 Power Play opportunities the Avalanche has been presented with this season, the Avs have capitalized on 32 of them. This gives the Avalanche a Power Play percentage of 21.5.
When you put this up against the Lightning’s Penalty Kill Percentage of 78.9, which earns the Bolts the 22nd place in the NHL, this means a trip to the sin bin for the Tampa Bay Lightning could be a very costly mistake. The Tampa Bay Lightning has more than enough talent to increase these stats, but with their lack of chemistry this season, little can be left to chance. In other words, the best way to avoid being taken advantage of on the Penalty Kill, the best thing they can do at this point is to stay out of the box.
Now, let’s journey back to the topic mentioned earlier…the goal scorers.
The Colorado Avalanche currently has three players who have already broken the 30 point range so far this season. Leading the way for the Avalanche is center Matt Duchene. Duchene has scored 21 goals and 16 assists so far this season for a grand total of 37 points. These numbers put him in first place on the team in both goals and overall points.
Right on the heels of Duchene is the young Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon. MacKinnon, who was drafted in the same 2013 NHL Draft class as Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Jonathan Drouin, has scored 15 goals and 22 assists in the 43 games he’s played so far this season for a total of 37 points.
One thing both Duchene and MacKinnon have in common is their aggressiveness on the Power Play. Of the 21 goals Matt Duchene scored this season, six of those have come with the man advantage. Much the same thing can be said about Nathan MacKinnon. Of the 15 goals MacKinnon has scored so far, five of them have come on the Power Play.
As we mentioned before, the Tampa Bay Lightning need to carefully pick and choose the penalties in which they take. Giving the Colorado Avalanche a man advantage at the wrong time could spell real trouble for the Lightning.
On the other side of the ice, it is Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov who is paving the way for the Tampa Bay Lightning. In the 42 games Kucherov has played this season with the Lightning, Kucherov has scored 16 goals and 17 assists for a total of 33 points.
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Right behind Kucherov is Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos. Just like Kucherov, Steven Stamkos has played in all 42 games the Lightning have played so far this season. In that amount of time, Stamkos has brought home 18 goals and 13 assists for a total of 31 points. Stamkos currently leads the Tampa Bay Lightning in goals scored.
Now that the Tampa Bay Lightning have finally overcome the tremendous amount of injuries they have been forced to deal with so far this season, the Lightning will finally have a chance to rebuild some of the chemistry the Lightning have had in the past. Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper has been forced to shake up the lines a little bit this season, but it seems like they are finally finding a combination that works.
It won’t be long now before we watch these two teams come together at center ice. We don’t know about you, but we are excited to see whether or not the Tampa Bay Lightning can keep their momentum rolling and get a healthy string of wins going.
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The puck is scheduled to drop at 9:00 p.m. EST. Make sure to stay connected right here to Bolts By The Bay as we bring you all the latest Tampa Bay Lightning, news, updates, commentary, and more.