Penguins at Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning hope to take some positive thoughts into the short holiday break after a rough stretch when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday. The Lightning are 2-5-1 in their last eight games, have injury concerns and are losers of 10 straight against Pittsburgh overall, but the Penguins come in after a 4-3 shootout loss at Florida on Monday. Pittsburgh got captain Sidney Crosby back from the mumps recently, but three more players are suspected to have the illness.
Center Brandon Sutter, right wing Steve Downie and goalie Thomas Greiss were sent home to Pittsburgh to be tested while defenseman Olli Maatta is already out with the mumps. The Penguins are also missing blue-liners Robert Bortuzzo, Christian Ehrhoff and Paul Martin due to injuries while going 5-0-3 over their last eight games. The Lightning are still among the league leaders in scoring at 3.2 goals per contest, but have managed only 16 during their eight-game slump.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, TVA, ROOT (Pittsburgh), Sun Sports (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE PENGUINS (22-6-5): Evgeni Malkin scored the tying goal late in regulation on Monday and has recorded eight points in his last eight outings to push his team-high total to 39. Crosby has three points in three games since returning from the mumps, but the Penguins could be down another forward as Blake Comeau suffered an undisclosed injury Monday and is questionable to face Tampa Bay. Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has not lost in regulation in his last eight games (6-0-2) and Jeff Zatkoff was recalled to back him up.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (20-11-4): The good news for Tampa Bay is that No. 1 goalie Ben Bishop (lower body injury) is back skating with the team, but rookie Andrei Vasilevskiy is likely to start Tuesday. However, defenseman Jason Garrison is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury and fellow blue-liner Anton Stralman did not practice Monday. While several forwards have been up and down over the last few weeks, Nikita Kucherov has continued to produce with four goals and three assists in the last six contests.
OVERTIME
1. Both teams are struggling mightily on the power play as Pittsburgh is 3-of-39 in 12 games and the Lightning are 3-of-33 in the last 10.
2. Pittsburgh D Simon Despres has three assists in the last two games and owns a plus-6 rating in his last seven contests.
3. Tampa Bay is 9-1-2 when leading after the first period and 0-10-1 when trailing after two sessions.