Lightning at Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins look to turn the tables on Tampa Bay and avoid a season series sweep Tuesday when they host the red-hot Lightning in a matchup of teams winning despite injury issues. The Penguins, who have been without their captain, one of the leading scorers and a top-pair defenseman for extended periods - among others this season - go for a 10th victory in 13 games.
Pittsburgh is 1-4-0 against the Lightning the last two seasons after dropping a pair of games at Tampa Bay already in 2019-20, including a 4-2 road setback Thursday, and made a big move Monday by acquiring Jason Zucker from Minnesota for fellow forward Alex Galchenyuk, a conditional first-round pick and a minor leaguer. Tampa Bay played without captain Steven Stamkos (lower body) Monday, but continued to roll with a 2-1 overtime victory at Columbus as reigning Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov scored his second goal 31 seconds into overtime. Kucherov boasts an 11-game point streak (10 goals, 10 assists) and the Lightning have won seven in a row while posting at least a point in nine straight and going 19-2-1 in their past 22 contests. Andrei Vasilevskiy (league-high 29 wins), who was rested in favor of backup Curtis McElhinney on Monday, is expected back in net against the Penguins and is 16-0-2 in his last 18 games while boasting a .945 save percentage since Jan. 1.
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: FS Sun, AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, TVA
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (36-15-5): Stamkos, who is riding a 10-game point streak, is considered day-to-day and was replaced in the lineup by Mathieu Joseph while Ondrej Palat (14 goals, 36 points) moved to the captain’s spot on the top line with Brayden Point and Kucherov (team-high 27 goals). Point stole the puck to set the winning play in motion Monday and had a pair of assists to extend his point streak to seven contests (two goals, nine assists). Tampa Bay is also without top-six defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Jan Rutta with lower-body injuries and neither is expected to return Tuesday.
ABOUT THE PENGUINS (34-15-5): Pittsburgh suffered another injury against Tampa Bay as emerging defenseman John Marino took a deflected Stamkos shot off the face and will be out indefinitely after surgery is performed. Center Evgeni Malkin has two goals and seven of his team-leading 57 points in the past four contests while captain Sidney Crosby boasts five goals - one in Saturday’s 3-2 win at Florida - and eight assists in nine games since returning from sports hernia surgery. Matt Murray won six of his last seven games in net - the only loss to Tampa Bay - while All-Star Tristan Jarry is 5-2-0 the past seven times he’s been between the pipes.
OVERTIME
1. Tampa Bay D Victor Hedman, who set up Kucherov's winner while logging 29 minutes, 10 seconds of ice time Monday, and is a plus-22 in his last 22 games.
2. Pittsburgh D Kris Letang owns two goals and three assists in his last four games and is fourth on the team with 36 points.
3. The Lightning is 1-for-34 on the power play over the last 14 games after coming up empty in three tries Monday.