Golden Knights at Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning play their only home game in a span of 27 days Thursday night as they come out of the league-mandated five-day break to take on the expansion Vegas Golden Knights in a battle of the top teams in each conference. The Lightning have not played since Jan. 11, when they suffered a 5-1 setback against Calgary and lost All-Star defenseman Victor Hedman for 3-to-6 weeks with a lower-body injury.
Tampa Bay, which has six more points than anyone in the Eastern Conference despite enjoying the week off, plays four contests away from home before the All-Star Game on Jan. 28 and then goes back out on the road for the next four. The Golden Knights hope to sweep the season series after defenseman Shea Theodore’s power-play goal - their fourth with the man advantage in the contest - with 2.3 seconds to go gave them a 4-3 victory over the Lightning on Dec. 19. Vegas has dropped two games in a row for the first time since losing three straight between Nov. 28-Dec. 1, after an overtime setback against Edmonton on Saturday and Tuesday’s 1-0 loss at Nashville. “You can’t dwell on it,” Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch told reporters after his team outshot the Predators 43-27. “We’ve got to move on. We’ve got a tough game Thursday against the best team in the league.”
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Vegas), FS Sun (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS (29-11-3): Vegas has managed four goals in the last three games and is 0-for-14 on the power play over the past five, but center William Karlsson continues to produce with three tallies in four contests and eight in 10. Karlsson leads the team with 23 goals and has 37 points - four behind team leader and former Lightning forward Jonathan Marchessault, who has four points in the past four contests. Forward Tomas Nosek (upper-body) left Tuesday’s game and returned to Vegas for evaluation while defenseman Jason Garrison, acquired from Tampa Bay last June, was recalled Wednesday.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (31-10-3): Coach Jon Cooper reshuffled his defense pairs with Hedman out as Slater Koekkoek appears to have moved into the top six while partnering with Anton Stralman at practice Wednesday. Braydon Coburn was also paired with Jake Dotchin at practice and rookie Mikhail Sergachev with Daniel Girardi, who is expected to return after missing two games when he was stuck in the neck with a slap shot in Detroit. Right wing Nikita Kucherov leads the NHL and keys the league’s best offense with 60 points, but Tampa Bay has struggled on the power play over the last 11 games (4-for-36).
OVERTIME
1. The Golden Knights have killed all 23 power plays in the last 10 games since giving up two on four tries against the Lightning.
2. Tampa Bay G Andrei Vasilevskiy leads the league with 27 wins and owns a .930 save percentage, but allowed 15 goals in his last three games.
3. Vegas RW Reilly Smith boasts two goals and three assists with a plus-7 rating in his last four contests.