Tampa Bay Lightning @ Seattle Kraken Preview

A five-game road trip continues tonight with the Tampa Bay Lightning (27-13-1) traveling west to take on the Seattle Kraken (26-12-4). Puck drop is slated for an afternoon slot at 4:00 p.m. ET. The Lightning are a slight favorite in Seattle tonight at -130 with an over/under set at 6.5, according to FanDuel.

After rattling off three straight wins, the Lightning are looking to keep the momentum going on the road this afternoon. They started this trip with a 4-2 win against the St. Louis Blues this past Saturday night. Brayden Point was electric again, scoring two goals in the first period to give the Bolts an early 2-1 lead. Rookie Nick Perbix also continued to shine this season with an assist and a second period goal that would help put away the game for the Lightning.

This will be the second battle with the Kraken this season, with the first game resulting in a 6-2 blowout in favor of the Lightning in Tampa Bay. Nikita Kucherov had three assists on the night, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves, and three different players netted goals in the second period within three and half minutes. Tampa Bay has had Seattle’s number since they entered the league as the newest expansion team last season, outscoring the Kraken 13-3 in three games.

Seattle, however, is certainly no slouch and have looked immensely better this season as compared to their inaugural season last year. 56 points in the Pacific division have them tied for second place with the LA Kings, and only two points behind the leading Las Vegas Golden Knights.

The Kraken have been on an absolute heater as of late, winning 8 straight games since the start of 2023 including a historic 7-0 road trip capped off with an 8-5 win in Chicago on Saturday. It’ll certainly be a tough test for the Lightning given the insane momentum for Seattle, but the Kraken are now 16-4-2 on the road as opposed to 10-8-2 at home. Hopefully this is a trend Tampa Bay can look to take advantage of given Seattle’s success on the road versus at home.

INJURIES: Lightning LW Rudolfs Balcers has been cleared to begin conditioning with the Syracuse Crunch. After not playing in the third period of the St. Louis game, D Nick Perbix was not spotted at practice for the Bolts at practice and likely will be out for this game.

Kraken G Chris Driedger and RW Joonas Donskoj remain on IR. LW Jaden Schwartz is considered day-to-day and may be a game-time call for today’s game.

Odds (Courtesy of FanDuel): TBL -130 ML/SEA +108 ML, O 6.5 -104/U 6.5 -118

Where to watch: Bally Sports Sun, NHL PowerPlay, ESPN+

Where to listen: Lightning Radio 24/7, 102.5 MHz-FM

Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA

January 16, 2023, 4:00 p.m. ET