Canadiens at Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning hope to begin pulling out of a slump that has seen them drop five of six games when they host the Atlantic Division-rival Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night. The Lightning had won a franchise-record 11 straight games before cooling off the past few weeks, and could not recover from a two-goal deficit Tuesday in a 2-1 loss to Boston that pushed them nine points behind the Atlantic-leading Bruins.
“You are not going to win every game, and these are teams you are going to have to go through to make it far this year,” Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman told reporters Tuesday. “So it was a good test for us, and we responded well, especially late in the second (period) and through the third.” The Lightning have won all three matchups with the Canadiens this season and eight of the last nine, but are facing a desperate team that has earned points in five of its last six contests (4-1-1) after routing the New York Islanders 6-2 on Tuesday. Montreal had pulled within seven points of a playoff position entering Wednesday and is showing no signs of packing it up for the season after scoring 22 goals during the six-game surge. “They come out and play hard all the time,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien told the Montreal Gazette. “It’s hard to find a game where you felt your team was lazy or just totally got dominated by the other team. So give them credit for their attitude, their approach and everything else. We’re not a perfect team, but I think we got the right things going in the right direction.”
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: FS Sun, RDS, TSN2
ABOUT THE CANADIENS (31-28-9): Left wing Tomas Tatar, who leads the team with 61 points and had six points (one goal, five assists) in three games prior to Tuesday, left the Islanders' game with a lower-body injury but Julien told reporters it did not appear serious. Phillip Danault is second on the team with 47 points after registering six in the past four contests while fellow center Max Domi boasts four goals and four assists in his last eight outings. Right wing Brendan Gallagher is tied with Tatar for the team lead at 22 goals after scoring twice and setting up three others with a plus-4 rating in his last three contests.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (41-20-5): Reigning Hart Trophy Nikita Kucherov did not make the scoresheet Tuesday for the first time in 20 games, but the right wing has accumulated team highs of 31 goals and 80 points. Center Mitchell Stephens, who was recalled after captain Steven Stamkos went down with a core muscle injury, had the only goal for Tampa Bay against Boston and recently acquired Barclay Goodrow had an assist. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots in the loss to Boston, but allowed six goals in three wins against the Canadiens this season - improving to 10-1-2 all time in the series.
OVERTIME
1. Montreal D Jeff Petry scored in each of the last two games and owns two goals and an assist versus the Lightning this season.
2. Tampa Bay D Ryan McDonagh, out since Feb. 6 with a lower-body injury, is practicing and close to a return to the lineup.
3. The Canadiens are 0-of-10 on the power play over the last six contests and killed 7-of-11 in the past four games.