Lightning at Sharks
The Tampa Bay Lightning have gained points in the first two contests on a critical six-game road trip and look to make it three when they visit the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night. The Lightning allowed 22 goals during a four-game losing streak to start January and have surrendered just eight in four contests since, including the 2-1 overtime loss at Anaheim on Tuesday.
“If we’re going to get back into this thing, it’s about playing defense,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper told the Tampa Bay Times. “We have a bunch of guys in that room that want to make the playoffs and are willing to do anything it takes to get there.” The Lightning hope to get All-Star defenseman Victor Hedman (38 points) back after the Swede missed the first two games of their road trip because of illness. San Jose also could have Logan Couture (sickness) back in the lineup after the center missed Wednesday’s 3-2 victory at Los Angeles. The Sharks have won four of their last six contests after captain Joe Pavelski notched a power-play goal and defenseman Brent Burns registered his team-leading 19th tally of the season.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, Sportsnet, FSN Sun (Tampa Bay), CSN California (San Jose)
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (21-20-5): Center Valtteri Filppula had the only goal for Tampa Bay on Tuesday and is up to 29 points – tied for third on the team – after struggling through last season with just 31 overall. Filppula has been playing primarily with power forward Brian Boyle and speedy Jonathan Drouin, who also has 29 points with 22 of them coming in the last 21 contests. Ben Bishop was in net for both encounters on the trip and stopped 50 of the 53 shots he faced, but backup Andre Vasilevskiy might get a chance to snap a five-game losing streak in one of the next two contests.
ABOUT THE SHARKS (27-16-2): Burns, who leads San Jose and all defensemen in the league with 46 points, boasts four goals and seven assists in the last seven games while Pavelski owns four and three, respectively, in the same span. Veteran forward Joe Thornton snapped a 30-game goal drought in the previous game and collected a pair of assists in Wednesday’s victory – pushing his career total to 990 helpers. Forward Tommy Wingels had the other tally Wednesday to end a 16-game goal drought and Martin Jones turned aside 22 shots to win for the fourth time in five starts.
OVERTIME
1. Tampa Bay RW Nikita Kucherov leads the team with 41 points, but managed just two in the last five contests.
2. Thornton moved past Johnny Bucyk for 24th on the NHL’s all-time points list Wednesday and is four behind Mike Modano (1,374) for 23rd.
3. The Sharks won 3-1 at Tampa Bay on Nov. 12, but have lost the last two home games against the Lightning.