Tampa Bay Lightning at Vegas Golden Knights Preview

In the final game of their road trip, the Tampa Bay Lightning (35-16-3) visit the Vegas Golden Knights (33-18-4) in a late game slated for 10:30 p.m. ET. FanDuel currently has the Lightning favored at -125 on the money line with an over/under at six for the game.

Tampa Bay comes into this game still sitting in the third spot in the Atlantic division, but now only trail Toronto by one point for second. In the first night of a back-to-back on Tuesday, the Lightning were able to complete the season sweep of the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche in a 4-3 shootout victory. The Bolts fell into a 2-0 hole, but displayed incredible fight and grit to work their way back into the game and eventually take a 3-3 score all the way through overtime. Steven Stamkos put home the only goal in the shootout that earned Tampa Bay the win along with the fantastic play of Andrei Vasilevskiy throughout the night.

The second game of the back-to-back didn’t quite fall Tampa Bay’s way. The Arizona Coyotes won in a shootout 1-0, thanks in part to Connor Ingram putting on a show for the Arizona faithful. 47 saves on the night stifled the Lightning and gave the young goalie his first career shutout. A tough loss for the Bolts, especially to a team that has struggled mightily to keep up at all in the Central division this year. Tonight will certainly not be a cakewalk either, as they face the Pacific division-leading Golden Knights.

After a rough stretch in January, Vegas has bounced back incredibly in the month of February going 4-0-0. They’ve outscored opponents 19-5 so far this month and look to certainly be on the right track coming down the home stretch. Jack Eichel has provided the team with some immense star power and has definitely paid off in helping make Las Vegas a Stanley Cup contender once again.

This is the first matchup between these two teams this season. The Lightning will host the Golden Knights for the final meeting on March 9th in Tampa. The Bolts split the season series 1-1 last year with Las Vegas, but ended up with a 4-3 victory last time they visited the Golden Knights.

INJURIES: Lightning D Erik Cernak was back at practice and could be likely to return tonight after sitting out last game.

Golden Knights D Daniil Miromanov is considered day-to-day. Full list of Las Vegas played on IR here.

Odds (Courtesy of FanDuel): TBL -125 ML/VGK +104 ML, O 6 -124/U 6 +102

Where to watch: ESPN, NHL Power Play, ESPN+

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

T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV

February 18, 2023, 10:30 p.m. ET