Lightning at Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs struggled to find the net on their trip to California and hope to get their offense back in gear as they play six of the next seven at home, starting with a visit from the Atlantic Division-rival Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night. The Maple Leafs, who entered Monday fourth in the league in scoring (3.41) managed three goals while going 0-2-1 in the Golden State, capped by Friday’s 2-1 loss at Anaheim.
“We know it’s going to come,” Toronto right wing Mitch Marner told reporters. “There’s no need to rush or put pressure on ourselves. We’re a team that can score. I mean, this road trip we showed that we can play in low-scoring games. It’s just our scoring wasn’t there, but it will come.” The third-place Maple Leafs lead Florida by one point in the Atlantic, and would meet the Lightning in the first round of the playoffs if the regular-season ended today. Tampa Bay managed to get a point in a 5-4 shootout loss at Detroit on Sunday despite a difficult turnaround on the road, after winning 5-3 at Boston on Saturday, and trails the Bruins by six points for the division lead. “That was a lot of emotion and a lot of energy used (in Boston),” Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh told reporters. “It might have showed a bit in our play (Sunday). I don’t think we were happy with some of our decision making, and giving them some looks like that is not the way we want to play.”
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: FS Sun, TVA, TSN4
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (43-20-6): Center Brayden Point had plenty of energy Sunday, scoring twice to push his total to 25 goals, and versatile forward Yanni Gourde added two assists to give him four over the past three contests. Top defenseman Victor Hedman (55 points, plus-27) missed Sunday’s game with a lower-body injury and is questionable for Tuesday, but McDonagh (299 career points) played 23 minutes, 42 seconds in his return after missing 14 contests with a lower-body ailment. Andrei Vasilevskiy (35-13-3, .917 save percentage) is expected to make his 250th NHL start after being rested Sunday.
ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (35-25-9): Center Auston Matthews (team-high 79 points) and Marner (65) were kept off the scoresheet in the last two games despite combining for 17 shots on net while captain John Tavares is pointless in three contests. Defenseman Cody Ceci was back in the lineup Friday, logging 14:38 of ice time after missing 14 games with an ankle injury, and top-pair blue liner Morgan Rielly (foot) is also close to returning for the first time in almost two months. Frederik Andersen is 3-0-1 in his last four starts, starting with a 26-save outing in a 4-3 win at Tampa Bay on Feb. 25 - improving to 4-10-1 all time versus the Lightning.
OVERTIME
1. Tampa Bay RW Nikita Kucherov leads the team with 33 goals and 84 points, making the scoresheet in 22 of his last 23 games.
2. Toronto’s veteran F Jason Spezza needs one assist to reach 600 in his career, but does not have a point in four games.
3. The Lightning are 5-for-13 on the power play the last five games while Toronto is 0-for-14 since going 2-for-4 at Tampa Bay.