Flyers at Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning could have three standouts back in the lineup as they attempt to extend their winning streak to 10 games Saturday afternoon against the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli all practiced Friday and will be game-time decisions after missing Thursday’s 3-1 win over Edmonton with lower-body injuries as the Lightning continued their solid run of defense - allowing nine goals in the last seven contests.
“You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re trying to score your way out of games,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper told reporters after his team matched the franchise record with its 10th straight win at home. “You’ve got to defend to win games. It’s something that I think our guys have really attached themselves to, and they take pride in it. It’s something we’ve been working on from training camp on. I know it wasn’t pretty early on, but we had to go through some growing pains and fortunately for us it’s clicking for us.” Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (7-2-0 all time versus the Flyers) has also played a big part during the run for the Lightning, going 18-0-2 in his last 20 games that included a 1-0 shutout at Philadelphia on Jan. 11 - the sixth straight victory in the series for Tampa Bay. The Flyers are 9-3-1 since that loss and own one of the wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference after knocking off Florida 6-2 on Thursday as six different players scored goals while a dozen had at least one point. “It seems like all lines have been contributing,” Philadelphia left wing James van Riemsdyk told reporters after the win. “That’s what you need. It makes it really tough to play against when you have contributions from everyone out there.”
TIME: 4 p.m. ET. TV: NHL Network, NBCS Philadelphia, FS Sun, Sportsnet East, Sportsnet Ontario, Sportsnet Pacific
ABOUT THE FLYERS (32-19-7): Center Sean Couturier recorded four of his 17 goals and five of his team-leading 51 points over the last four games while forward Travis Konecny is one away from his third straight season with 20 tallies. Philadelphia’s defense has stepped up as Robert Hagg scored in each of the last two games, Justin Braun boasts five assists and Matt Niskanen four in the past four contests with offensive blue-liner Shayne Gostisbehere out due to a knee injury. Carter Hart (17-11-3, .908 SP) stopped 56 of the 59 shots he faced in two games - both wins - since returning from injury and is expected to get the start Saturday.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (38-15-5): Forward Yanni Gourde has answered a 35-game goal drought with the game winner in each of the last two contests, including a short-handed tally in Thursday’s victory. “It definitely helps having that goal out of the way,” Gourde told reporters. “I think I was really focused the past weeks and month how I could really help this team win. I knew I wasn’t going to score every night. … I was just trying my best to help this team.” Kucherov has at least a point in the last 12 games he’s played and leads the team in both goals (27) and points (70) while Stamkos made the scoresheet in 10 straight before missing the last three contests.
OVERTIME
1. Philadelphia D Travis Sanheim left Thursday’s game with an upper-body injury, but is expected to play Saturday.
2. Tampa Bay C Brayden Point had an assist Thursday to extend his point streak to nine games (two goals, 11 assists).
3. The Lightning are just 1-for-27 on the power play the last 11 games while the Flyers are 7-for-7 on the kill the past three games.