What to watch for as Tampa Bay Lightning host Boston Bruins

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
January 31, 2017

BRANDON, Fla. – Tampa Bay returns to the ice following four days off for the All-Star break as the Lightning host the Boston Bruins tonight (7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Sun, 970-AM and tblpowerplay.com at Amalie Arena.

Tampa Bay trails the Bruins, who currently occupy the No. 3 spot in the Atlantic Division, by six points with two games in hand. Points are at a premium for both teams with the playoffs chase starting to enter the final stretch run. Both teams want to start the unofficial start of the second half of the season on the right note.

Here are three things to watch for tonight as the Lightning return to action.

{mprestriction ids=”1,2″}

1 – Special teams: Tampa Bay at times this season has lived off the success of its power play, which is ranked tied for fourth in the league heading in to tonight, clicking on a 22.8 percent conversion rate. At home, the power play is 25.3 percent, fifth in the league. So the Lightning want to take advantage of any chances with the man advantage.

But the Lightning are running in to one of the top penalty kill teams in the league in the Bruins. Entering tonight Boston is ranked second in the league on the penalty kill, killing off 86.5 percent, a number that drops to 84.8 percent on the road, which is still good enough to be ranked seventh in the league. Boston enters the game having killed off 16-of-18 power plays against in the past six games.

2 – Find some offense: Tampa Bay is struggling to score goals, held to two or fewer goals in five of the past seven games and eight of the past 11. The record in those games is 3-6-2, and two of the three victories came in games in which Tampa Bay scored four or more goals. That’s because three is the magic number for the Lightning. When they score at least three goals this season Tampa Bay is 20-5-1 while dating back to the start of last season the record is 55-8-4.

By contrast, when scoring two or fewer goals, Tampa Bay is 2-17-5 this season and 13-44-7 dating back to last season.

3 – Defense first: Tampa Bay’s defense has been improve of last, allowing two or fewer goals in seven of the past eight games (not including an empty net goal). It’s a model the Lightning have to continue if they want to find success. Since a three-day break earlier in the month, Tampa Bay has shown a renewed commitment to playing strong team defense. Though it has not paid off in enough positive results to this point, that style of play is going to have to continue if the Lightning are to start climbing up the standings. And against Boston, it will be a challenge as the Bruins have scored 46 goals in the past 16 games (2.88 per game) after scoring 85 goals in the opening 36 games (2.36 per game).

Pregame notes: G Ben Bishop will get the start in goal for Tampa Bay, his first action since Jan. 21 at Arizona when he was pulled from the game after allowing five goals on 17 shots through two periods. … LW Jonathan Drouin was on the ice for the morning skate after missing Monday’s practice due to flight delays while returning to town. … D Victor Hedman and RW Nikita Kucherov were both excused from the morning skate as they experienced delays in returning to Tampa from Los Angeles after participating in the All-Star game. … C Brayden Point will return to the lineup for the first time since suffering a fractured hand/finger during a game on Dec. 28. … LW Michael Bournival will miss his second consecutive game with an undisclosed upper-body injury. … Here is what the lines are expected to look like to start the game tonight:

Ondrej Palat-Vladislav Namestnikov-Nikita Kucherov

Brian Boyle-Valtteri Filppula-Jonathan Drouin

Alex Killorn-Tyler Johnson-Brayden Point

Gabriel Dumont-Cedric Paquette-Michael Bournival.
{/mprestriction}