Devils at Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning hope to build off a productive effort on the power play when they host the New Jersey Devils on Saturday. The Lightning, who came within a victory of the Stanley Cup Final last postseason despite a power play that ranked 28th in the league, capitalized on three of their six opportunities with the man advantage in Thursday’s season-opening 6-4 win over Detroit.
“We have been working a lot on it in the preseason,” Tampa Bay center Tyler Johnson told reporters. “We talked about it. We had to have better execution. It wasn’t acceptable what we did last season. I thought we did a pretty good job (Thursday).” Four players recorded two points apiece for the Lightning in their opener, and they will try to keep the Devils winless on their Sunshine State swing. New Jersey regisitered just 24 shots and went 0-for-2 on the power play but earned a point in a 2-1 overtime loss at Florida on Thursday. Newly acquired forward Taylor Hall was scoreless on two shots for the Devils but has collected eight points in seven career games against Tampa Bay.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG Plus 2 (New Jersey), FSN Sun (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE DEVILS (0-0-1): P.A. Parenteau, who was claimed off waivers from the New York Islanders earlier in the week, scored New Jersey’s only goal in the opener and finished with three shots in 10:51 of ice time. Kyle Palmieri, last season’s leading scorer, was minus-2 with three shots as well and was blunt when speaking about the team's power play, which did not register a shot. “As a unit, our power play was pretty bad, myself included,” he told reporters. Yohann Auvitu, a 27-year-old defenseman from France, notched an assist on Thursday in his NHL debut while joining veterans Ben Lovejoy and Kyle Quincey as newcomers on the Devils' blue line.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (1-0-0): Jonathan Drouin scored the first goal for Tampa Bay on the power play and set up Alex Killorn’s eventual winner with the man advantage while leading the team with five shots on Thursday. Coach Jon Cooper told reporters the game is “slowing down” for the talented 21-year-old forward, who played on a line with captain Steven Stamkos and Ondrej Palat much of the night. The Lightning received three points from their fourth line in the opener as Cedric Paquette posted a goal and an assist while Brian Boyle also scored as they skated with J.T. Brown.
OVERTIME
1. The Lightning have won four in a row against the Devils, including all three meetings last season by a combined 11-3 score.
2. Tampa Bay G Ben Bishop made 28 saves on Thursday to pass Daren Puppa (4,959) for the franchise lead with 4,963.
3. New Jersey's Blake Speers, a 19-year-old rookie, made his NHL debut on Thursday while fellow Fs Beau Bennett and Reid Boucher were healthy scratches.