Tampa Bay Lightning Look To Get Back On Track Against Maple Leafs

The Tampa Bay Lightning look to get back on track and kick off another win streak against the Toronto Maple Leafs in their last game before the All-Star Break.

The Tampa Bay Lightning has finally found the one thing that has been escaping them all season long, their offensive prowess and some semblance of the consistency they displayed during the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Unfortunately, after putting together a seven-game winning streak, the Lightning were stopped dead in their tracks by the Atlantic Division-leading Florida Panthers.

There is just one game left between now and the start of the All-Star Break. On Wednesday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning will open the doors to the Amalie Arena and play host to a team that is all-too-familiar to the Lightning this season, captain Dion Phaneuf and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Wednesday night’s showdown at the Amalie Arena will be the second time these two teams will meet in the center of the ice this season. In the first encounter between these two teams, which took place on December 15^th, the Tampa Bay Lightning were able to edge out the Maple Leafs with an overtime goal by Lightning center Vladislav Namestnikov.

While Toronto doesn’t have a lot to lose in their next encounter with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Bolts have everything to lose. The Tampa Bay Lightning have fought tooth and nail tooth and nail all season long to make their way to the top of the Atlantic Division.

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Right now, the Bolts are on the heels of their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers. Two points in a divisional matchup would get the Lightning one step closer to the Panthers. On the other hand, a loss would be a devastating way to kick off the All-Star Break.

There are going to be three keys necessary for the Tampa Bay Lightning to bring home the two points in their Atlantic Division showdown with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Let’s take a closer look at these keys and see what will bring home the victory for the Bolts.

Consistency

There is no denying the Tampa Bay Lightning has everything they need at their disposal to play a complete 60 minutes of hockey. They put this talent on display for everyone to see when the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks on January 21^st. The Tampa Bay Lightning was offensively dominant, holding the Blackhawks to a mere 18 shots in 60 minutes of play.

Also, with the exception of an assist on the goal by Blackhawks center Artem Anisimov in the first period, the Lightning were able to keep the National Hockey League’s leading goal scorer Patrick Kane off the scoreboard entirely. This is not a feat easily accomplished by a team without a talented and well-rounded team.

Unfortunately, while things may have started off on the right foot for the Lightning as they took on the Florida Panthers on Saturday night, things quickly fell apart in the second period and it seemed like all the progress the Tampa Bay Lightning had made over the course of the last seven games had been all but forgotten.

Coming into Wednesday night’s game, the Tampa Bay Lightning need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and put everything from Saturday night’s encounter with the Panthers out of their minds and get back to playing the kind of hockey we all know they are capable of. The kind of hockey that led to the Lightning to snap one of the longest winning streaks of the season against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Stay Out Of the Penalty Box

The Tampa Bay Lightning struggled for a good portion of the season in terms of special teams. While there has been great improvement over the course of the last month, there is still plenty of work to be done. One of the biggest things the Lightning need to correct before their meeting with the Maple Leafs on Wednesday night is making better decisions on the ice and not taking unnecessary penalties.

We here at Bolts By The Bay have talked at length about this subject in the past. There are two types of penalties in the great sport of hockey. There are those that are simply necessary in order for the team to prevent something far worse from happening, like an odd-man rush into the defensive zone. Those are the times when a player simply “takes one for the team.”

On the other hand, there are completely unnecessary penalties like Too Many Men On The Ice or being sent on a one-way trip to the sin bin because a player’s situational awareness failed them and they find themselves being called for Hooking, Tripping, or one of the other completely avoidable penalties.

If the Tampa Bay Lightning want to continue to be successful this season, they are going to have to be mindful of the penalties they are taking as well as being able to hold strong and protect the net from the Penalty Kill situations they happen to find themselves in.

Take The Shot And Dig For The Rebound

There have been far too many times this season when the Tampa Bay Lightning would pass themselves right out of a decent scoring opportunity simply because no one ventured to take the shot. Granted, not every shot is going to find its way into the back of the net, but if there is anything we know for sure, it’s that you will fail to score on 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Rather than trying to consistently set up a player like Steven Stamkos, who the other team is well aware that player is one of the most dangerous snipers on the team and more than likely have said player double covered, the player needs to find their opening and simply take the shot.

Sure, that shot may be turned aside by the goaltender. At the same time, if the team has someone in position in front of the net prepared to get a piece of the rebound, the team’s efforts have just been doubled. It doesn’t matter if you are an elite goaltender like New York Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist or Montreal Canadiens netminder Carey Price, even the most elite goaltenders cannot be everywhere at the same time.

In other words, take the shot, dig for the rebound, and make the opposing goaltender work for each and every save they make over the course of the 60 minutes of hockey.

There is no denying the Toronto Maple Leafs have plenty of players on their team capable of hitting the back of the net, there is one player in particular the Tampa Bay Lightning need to have their eyes on during Wednesday night’s encounter, Maple Leafs center Leo Komarov.

Komarov currently leads the Toronto Maple Leafs in both goals and overall points. Over the course of the 46 games Komarov has played in this season with the Maple Leafs, he has scored 16 goals and 15 assists for a total of 31 points.

On the other side of the ice, it is Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov leading the way for the Bolts. Kucherov has played in all 48 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning this season, and in that amount of time the young Russian forward has been able to bring home 20 goals and 21 assists for a total of 41 points. Kucherov is currently tied with Lightning captain Steven Stamkos for the most goals on the team.

As we mentioned before, now that the Tampa Bay Lightning has a majority of their team healthy and the team has started to find their mojo from the previous season, the Tampa Bay Lightning has everything at their disposal they need in order to get the job done against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night. The only thing left for them to do is lace up their skates and get the job done.

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