Tampa Bay Lightning Hope To Finish Off Their Western Road Trip Right

The Tampa Bay Lightning heads to the Pepsi Center in Colorado tonight to take on Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche in the final game of their Western Conference road trip.

The Tampa Bay Lightning has certainly been making a name for themselves during their road trip through the Western Conference. Including last night’s 4-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes, the Lightning has brought home six of the eight points they have had put in front of them.

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Unfortunately, the Bolts Nation doesn’t have a whole lot of time to sit back and revel in the sweet sensation of victory.

Tonight, the Lightning will head into the Pepsi Center in Colorado and prepare to do battle with captain Gabriel Landeskog and the Colorado Avalanche.

The Colorado Avalanche don’t seem to have the same offensive fire power as the Tampa Bay Lightning do this season; unfortunately, there are still a few players that could present a problem for the Lightning. We all know that there is no love lost between the Lightning and Colorado Avalanche right wing Jarome Iginla.

As most of you are well aware, Iginla played for sixteen seasons with the Calgary Flames, including the 2003-2004 season when the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup. We think it is pretty safe to say that Iggy and former Tampa Bay Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier didn’t quite see things eye to eye.

Unfortunately for the Lightning, Iginla has not lost a step in his game and currently leads the Avalanche in both goals and overall points. So far this season, Iggy has netted 18 goals and 23 assists for a total of 41 points along with a plus-2 rating.

On the other side of the ice you have players like captain Steven Stamkos and center Tyler Johnson who have been lighting it up so far this season. Stamkos currently leads the Lightning in goals with 32 while Johnson leads the Lightning in overall points with 56.

We all know that the Lightning has the fire power to get through just about every team in the National Hockey League. The real question is whether or not they will be able to play a consistent 60 minutes of hockey and get the job done.

The good news is that if the Bolts play anything like they did last night against former Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Mike Smith and the Arizona Coyotes, then they should be perfectly fine.

These two teams have already met once this season. Back on January 17^th, the Colorado Avalanche came crashing into the Amalie Arena where they were sent packing with the score of 3-2 in the Shootout. It is the close games like this one that always seem to keep people on the edge of their seats.

The Lightning are expected to start the newest member of the Tampa Bay Lightning roster, Andrei Vasilevskiy, between the pipes tonight against Colorado. In the nine games he’s played so far this season in Lightning blue, he has gone 4-2-1 with a Goals Allowed Average of 2.13 and a Save Percentage of .927.

These are pretty solid figures for someone who has yet to play a full season in the National Hockey League.

While it is unknown at this point just who we will see between the pipes for the Avs tonight, we know that the Avs top netminder Semyon Varlamov has been pretty solid this season as well. In the 39 games he’s played so far this season, Varlamov has gone 17-15-7 with a Goals Allowed Average of 2.56 and a Save Percentage of .920.

If this comes down to another battle of the goaltenders as their last encounter did, then we are going to be in for another nail biter of a game; however, if the Lightning continue the play that they showed last night against the Coyotes, then they should have no issues bringing home the victory and heading back into the Amalie Arena with eight out of ten points on this road trip.

Whichever way this story ends, we can tell you in the most sincerest of honesty that we are proud of what the Lightning has accomplished thus far and can’t wait to see where the remainder of the season leads us.

Who do you think will be the standout in tonight’s encounter? Do you think Ondrej Palat can pull a repeat of last night and make this another multi-point game? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

If you need to know where you can go to catch all the action in tonight’s encounter, here is a look at all the information you’ll need to make sure you don’t miss a single second of the action. Just remember, the puck drops at 7:00 p.m. Are you ready to Be The Thunder?

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