Tampa Bay Lightning Host The Toronto Maple Leafs Following Comeback Win

Following an inspiring win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday, the Tampa Bay Lightning will look to keep the momentum rolling into tonight’s game against the Maple Leafs.

The Tampa Bay Lightning needed nearly the entire game against the Montreal Canadiens last night to tie the game, and following a rally in overtime, the Lightning took down their Atlantic Division rival, 4-3 in the extra period. Tampa Bay will now take on the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight after an emotional and much-needed victory.

Both teams will be playing the second half of a back-to-back tonight, as the Maple Leafs earned a 3-2 shootout win over the Florida Panthers on the road, and the Lightning beat the Canadiens 4-3 in overtime. This season, the Lightning are 1-1-2 in the second half of back-to-backs, and they’ll need to continue grabbing points on this current five-game homestand.

There have been talks about how the Tampa Bay Lightning need to earn at least eight points (out of a possible 10) on this homestand in order to put the chance at a playoff run back into the picture. For the most part, that’s what needs to happen, and the mission to completing a great stretch of home games continues tonight.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Noting that it’s crucial for the Lightning to have success at home, it’s also important to note that the month of January will feature eight road games (the second-most in a month this season), including the daunting California trip out west. With that said, if the Lightning want a shot at earning a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it all starts here, and there’s no place like home.

As for tonight’s opponent, the Toronto Maple Leafs have climbed back into the picture, as they are only two points behind the Lightning in the division and Wild Card standings. Before that, Toronto was towards the bottom of the standings, and this just shows how tight everything is in the Atlantic Division and how a quick win streak can make a difference.

The Maple Leafs have won three in a row and are 5-3-2 in their last 10 games, and they have scored 27 goals, given up 18 and went 21.2 percent on the Power Play over that stretch. Overall, the Leafs are 15-12-7 (37 points) and sit in fifth place in the division, right behind the Lightning. They have averaged around 2.91 goals per game, which is in the top 10, and given up around 2.71 goals per game.

Additionally, Toronto has converted on 20.0 percent of their opportunities on the Power Play and killed off 84.2 percent of their penalties. On the road, the Maple Leafs are third in the NHL on the man advantage, clipping at a 27.1 percent rate, and are second in the league in road Penalty Kill percentage, killing off 91.2 percent of their penalties away from home.

In short, the Leafs have things figured out special teams-wise, and they’ll look to stop the league’s fourth best home Power Play unit, as the Tampa Bay Lightning have converted on 25.0 percent of their opportunities on home ice.

All of a sudden, one of the lowest-scoring teams in the NHL last season has been able to find the back of the net more often, and much of that has come from a few of the “new kids on the block” in forwards Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander.

Those three players are in the top-4 in scoring on the Maple Leafs, and each of them was drafted in the last three years. Matthews, who was the number one overall pick in the 2016 Draft and has 11 goals in his last 15 games, leads the team with 17 goals and 28 points in 34 games is right behind him with eight goals and 26 points in the same amount of games.

Nylander, who was the eighth overall pick in the 2014 Draft, has eight goals and 23 points in 33 games and has two goals in his last two games. So, the “20 and younger” crowd for Toronto has made important contributions to the team thus far, and the Leafs look to have a bright future in store with all this young talent.

Possession-wise, the Leafs are just above 50 percent in both the SAT (shot attempts) and USAT (unblocked shot attempts) categories and have continued that trend over their last 10 games. Against the Panthers last night, Toronto put up 40 shots, while Florida put up 47 for a combined 87 shots. Overall, the Leafs are fourth in the league in total shot attempts for with 1,657, and clearly.

As for Tampa Bay, the Lightning have four wins in their last seven games and have improved to 10-5-1 at home this season, though they are just 8-10-2 on the road. Nonetheless, the team is getting back to its winning ways on home ice, and the Lightning will look to keep the ball rolling tonight.

To this point, the Tampa Bay Lightning have been plagued by injuries, and that has prompted the front office to call-up several players from the Syracuse Crunch. Though some of the players on the Lightning are slowly coming back from injury, it’s likely that we’ll continue to see new and old faces from Syracuse.

Last night, forward Matthew Peca made his NHL debut, played in 13:03 of ice time and was 50 percent in the faceoff dot. Just this morning, it was announced that forwards Yanni Gourde and Erik Condra were called-up, and they will join the team today. Unfortunately, the injuries to Vladislav Namestnikov and Brayden Point prompted these transactions from the AHL.

Point, who will be out for four to six weeks with an upper-body injury, he was slashed last night and did not return to the game. Namestnikov (day-to-day) didn’t return to the game as well, and several key players continue to go in and out of the lineup. Fortunately, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat returned to action on Wednesday after missing several games due to injury.

Head coach Jon Cooper reunited the “Triplets” line, and Kucherov, Palat and Tyler Johnson combined for three goals and six points against Montreal. They displayed the type of chemistry they had a couple of seasons ago, and the tying goal in the first period was a great example of this. Hopefully, he’ll keep them together tonight against the Maple Leafs.

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With goaltender Ben Bishop still out with an injury, netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy has taken over the reins and has performed fairly well in his absence. Since Bishop went down, Vasilevskiy has three wins in four games and will receive his third straight start tonight, per Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times. Vasilevskiy played both games of the team’s home-road back-to-back and gave up four goals against the Washington Capitals on the second-half of that two-game stretch.

We’ll see how he does tonight, and backup goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis is ready to go, if needed, and could appear in his second game this season if anything happens.

Maple Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen earned the win last night against the Panthers and could be on the bench tonight. Backup netminder Antoine Bibeau will look to get the start against the Lightning. In one start this season, Bibeau has a .929 save percentage and 2.11 goals against average.

This should be an interesting match-up since the Lightning have never faced Bibeau, though solving a new goaltender shouldn’t be an issue for the Bolts. If they manage to play like they did last night, another win could be in sight.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs will face off in a big divisional match-up at Amalie Arena, and if Toronto can pull out a win, they’ll tie the Lightning in points with 39 and have a game in hand. The Leafs are looking to avenge a 7-3 loss at the hands of the Lightning earlier this season and win their fourth straight game. Tampa Bay will be looking to create some momentum at home as we roll over into the new year. Go Bolts!

TV/Radio/Live Stream Information

Game 37 match-up: Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Toronto Maple Leafs

Venue: Amalie Arena

Time: 7:30 p.m. ET

Watch/Listen: FS-Sun, 970 WFLA, TBL Power Play, Fox Sports Go

Opponent FanSided site: Editor In Leaf

Projected lines (subject to change)

Tampa Bay Lightning

Forwards

Ondrej Palat – Tyler Johnson – Nikita Kucherov

Brian Boyle – Valtteri Filppula – Jonathan Drouin

Alex Killorn – Matthew Peca – Yanni Gourde

Michael Bournival – J.T. Brown – Erik Condra

Defensemen

Victor Hedman – Anton Stralman

Jason Garrison – Andrej Sustr

Braydon Coburn – Slater Koekkoek – Nikita Nesterov (mixing in somehow)

Goaltenders

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Kristers Gudlevskis

Injuries/Scratches: Steven Stamkos (lateral meniscus tear, out for four months), Ryan Callahan (lower-body, day-to-day), Brayden Point (upper-body, four to six weeks), Ben Bishop (lower-body, three to four weeks), Cedric Paquette (lower-body, day-to-day), Vladislav Namestnikov (upper-body, day-to-day), scratches to be determined.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Forwards

Zach Hyman – Auston Matthews – Connor Brown

Leo Komarov – Nazem Kadri – William Nylander

James van Riemsdyk – Tyler Bozak – Mitchell Marner

Matt Martin – Frederik Gauthier – Nikita Soshnikov

Defensemen

Morgan Rielly – Nikita Zaitsev

Jake Gardiner – Connor Carrick

Matt Hunwick – Roman Polak

Goaltenders

Antoine Bibeau

Frederik Andersen

Injuries/Scratches: Joffrey Lupul (sports hernia), Martin Marincin (undisclosed injury, four to six weeks), Ben Smith (upper-body, IR), scratches to be determined.