Tampa Bay Lightning Set To Face Pittsburgh Penguins In Playoff Rematch

The Tampa Bay Lightning will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins for the first time since the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals and look to steady the ship in the midst of this tough stretch of games.

Nearly six months ago, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins faced off in a decisive game seven of the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals, and both teams were seeking a berth in the Stanley Cup Final. And despite getting its captain, Steven Stamkos, back for the final game of the series, the Lightning dropped the ball and lost the game, 2-1 in regulation.

Fast-forward to now, the Lightning and Penguins will face off for the first time since that game seven back in late May. It was a very intense and “speedy” series and hopefully, tonight’s game will bring more of the same. Both teams’ rosters are virtually the same, so everyone on the ice should be pretty familiar with one another.

If we look back on that series, the Pittsburgh Penguins outshot the Lightning in every game and dominated Tampa Bay with its speed and consistent pressure on the forecheck in the attacking zone. This was especially present in game seven when the Lightning only put up 17 shots on goaltender Matt Murray, and it felt like the team was unable to maintain any consistent pressure of its own in the Penguins’ zone.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Penguins continued that style of play into the Stanley Cup Final and outworked the San Jose Sharks, winning the series in six games. In addition, Pittsburgh had (and still has) tremendous depth on all four lines and that was part of the reason why the Pens reached the Cup Final and won it all.

The team was receiving contributions from a variety of players and that factor ultimately proved to be a decisive advantage for the Penguins throughout the playoffs.

With that in mind, I have no doubt both sides will be fired up and ready to go for this game. This will be the first of three meetings between the two, and the next game will be in January in Pittsburgh. Without further ado, let’s take a look at tonight’s match-up.

The Lightning and Penguins are two teams heading in opposite directions: while Pittsburgh has won four in a row, and is looking to make it five straight with a win tonight, the Lightning has dropped seven of its last 10 games, including a 5-1 stinker against the visiting Vancouver Canucks.

So, the Penguins are getting hot at the right time and is only two points behind the Metropolitan Division-leading New York Rangers for first place. Pittsburgh started off the first month of the season with six wins and continued to rack up victories into November. Even though the Pens fell to a bit of an inconsistent rut deeper into the month, the team has won four straight and is back where it wants to be in the standings.

Pittsburgh is averaging 3.37 goals for per game, which second in the league behind the Rangers, but it is giving up nearly 2.96 goals against per game, which is fourth to last in the NHL. On the special teams side of things, the Penguins has the 15th best Power Play in the league, converting on 17.4 percent of its opportunities, and the second-worst Penalty Kill, with a 76.0 percent success rate on the season.

Possession metrics-wise, the Pittsburgh Penguins is above 50 percent in both the shot attempts (SAT%) and unblocked shot attempts (USAT%) categories, which is in the top-10 in the NHL. As expected, the Pens has strong possession numbers and it’s something to definitely look out for. There are more underlying numbers that tell the whole story, though.

Finally, the Penguins is led by Sidney Crosby (18-11–29), who is tied for the league lead in goals (18), Evgeni Malkin (10-18–28) and Phil Kessel (9-18–27), who is continuing to flourish with Pittsburgh in his second season there. All three of these players need to be watched for on the ice tonight, though they’re not the only ones that pose a threat.

Additionally, the infamous “HBK” line, consisting of forwards Nick Bonino, Carl Hagelin and Kessel, hasn’t really been utilized this season, but that’s not a negative, especially in regards to tonight. That line tore it up through the playoffs and it was a true testament to the Penguins’ tremendous depth inside the forward corps.

As for the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team has been reeling as of late and recently dropped an ugly loss to the Canucks on Thursday.

Things looked to be turning around last weekend when Tampa Bay took down the Washington Capitals, 2-1 in a shootout, and dropped an overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. It was also a good weekend for goaltender Ben Bishop, who only allowed two goals on nearly 70 shots over the two games and was under the microscope a bit at the time.

However, after the loss on Thursday, it seems as if the Lightning might go into another slump. With a tough opponent coming up tonight and another three-game road trip next week, the team cannot afford to drop another three or four games in a row.

Currently, Tampa Bay still boasts one of the NHL’s top young talents and scorers in Nikita Kucherov, and he’s definitely someone to watch out for. Forward Tyler Johnson will also look to get back on the scoresheet and continue his determined play from Thursday night.

In addition, the Lightning has the fourth-best Power Play until in the league, and it should be effective tonight against the Penguins’ lowly-ranked Penalty Kill unit.

The two goaltenders that primarily faced each other during the Eastern Conference Final will duel it out once again, as two of the league’s top young netmiders, Matt Murray and Andrei Vasilevskiy, will both start in net for their respective teams.

Murray has a 9-2-0 record, .934 save percentage and a 1.91 goals against average in 10 starts this season, including four wins in his last five starts. Vasilevskiy has a 6-2-1 record, .929 save percentage and a 2.27 goals against average in 10 starts. It should be another exciting match-up between the two netminders and may the best goalie win.

Next: Lightning Players Who Could Be Moved At The Trade Deadline

The Tampa Bay Lightning faces a tough challenge tonight against the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins, and the current slump the team is in doesn’t help when it comes to trying to find positives about how they might fare against one of the NHL’s top teams. Tune in at 7 p.m. locally on Fox Sports Sun and Lightning Radio, 970 WFLA. You can also watch the entire game on the run with the Fox Sports Go app in select areas. Go Bolts!