Senators at Lightning
THE STORY: The Tampa Bay Lightning navigated through a difficult road trip 1-1-1 and they come home for 14 of the next 19 games. Two of those - including Tuesday - are against the Ottawa Senators, who have one victory in their last nine games. The Lightning trail eighth-place Toronto by eight points with a game in hand and seventh-place Ottawa by 10 with three in hand. The Senators outscored Tampa Bay 8-3 combined in two victories at Ottawa earlier.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, RDS, SNET-E (Senators), SunSports (Lightning)
ABOUT THE SENATORS (28-22-8): Ottawa has picked it up a bit on offense with seven goals in its last two games after recording nine in the previous seven. Leading scorer Jason Spezza has six points in the last three games, but the Senators have to stop the bleeding after a 1-6-2 stretch as they start a three-game trip that continues in Florida on Wednesday. Ottawa has allowed 30 goals in their nine-game funk to drop to 28th in goals against through Sunday, two spots ahead of the Lightning. Defenseman Erik Karlsson already has a career-high 50 points and is plus-8 after being minus-30 last season.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (24-25-6): Tampa Bay had leads in New York and Pittsburgh on the recent road trip, but came away with one point in the two games. The Lightning have improved on the road, going 3-1-1 in the last five and have been good all season at home (15-8-2). Steven Stamkos had his six-game point streak ended Sunday, but still leads the NHL with 37 goals – five more than anyone. The Lightning could get power forward Ryan Malone back from injury to add to the offense, which is averaging more than three goals in a 7-2-2 run. Teddy Purcell has at least an assist in four straight games.
OVERTIME:
1. Ottawa has 12 home games and 12 on the road remaining.
2. The Lightning are 19.2 percent on the power play at home and 9.0 on the road.
3. Ottawa’s Craig Anderson shares the NHL lead in assists for goaltenders (four) with New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur.