Lightning at Maple Leafs
The NHL-best Tampa Bay Lightning opened their five-game road trip with a dominant performance and hope to build off that when they visit the scuffling Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night. The Lightning won for the 11th time in 13 games Sunday as they scored four second-period goals en route to a 5-0 victory at Columbus to lead second-place Toronto and Boston by 10 points in the Atlantic Division.
Tampa Bay is 9-1-0 following a loss this season and showed that bounce-back ability again Sunday, after a dull performance against Philadelphia two nights earlier, as Tyler Johnson and league scoring leader Nikita Kucherov increased their point streaks to 12 and 10 games, respectively. “What I’ve really liked about our team is our response,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper told reporters. “. … We haven’t gone through any prolonged losing streaks. If we did get a loss, we nipped it right away. That shows the leadership and character in the room.” Toronto was rolling along right on Tampa Bay’s tail earlier in the season, but has not been as good of late with a 3-5-1 mark over the last nine after a 6-3 setback at Vegas on Sunday. “Defense is a five-man unit, I’m not just blaming (the blue line),” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock told reporters after the loss Sunday, “we were all guilty today. … Sometimes when you play a quick team like (Vegas), some guys get exposed.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, TVA, FS Sun (Tampa Bay), Sportsnet Ontario (Toronto)
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (28-8-2): Johnson has found his top form since moving to right wing at the very end of November, recording eight goals and 10 assists in the last 12 games, while Kucherov tops the NHL in goals (25) and points (56) after putting up eight and 20, respectively, in December. Captain Steven Stamkos decided he needed to shoot the puck more about a week ago and registered four goals in his last three games to push his point total to 49. Andrei Vasilevskiy earned his league-leading fifth shutout Sunday and tops the NHL is wins (25), goals-against average (2.02) and save percentage (.935).
ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (23-15-2): Center Auston Matthews picked up where he left off before missing 10 games with a concussion, notching four goals in the last four games and reaching the 100-point plateau in his 112th NHL contest. Defenseman Morgan Rielly owns six assists in his last four games and right wing William Nylander has recorded three goals and set up four others in his past six contests. Frederik Andersen, who is 1-4-0 with an .842 SP career against the Lightning, gave up 14 goals in his first seven appearances in December before surrendering nine tallies in the past two games.
OVERTIME
1. Toronto C Nazem Kadri (13 goals) missed the last two games with an upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day.
2. Tampa Bay D Victor Hedman is tied for fifth on the team with 29 points and registered 12 of them in the last nine games along with a plus-13 rating.
3. The Lightning are 6-2-1 in the last nine games against the Maple Leafs and won in their last two trips to Toronto.