Enjoyable Beneath the Lights: Lightning at Bruins Preview

Game Fifty-Three: Boston Bruins (30-20-5) at Tampa Bay Lightning (34-14-4)

Time: 6:30 PM EST

Location: Raymond James Stadium, Home of the Two-Time Super Bowl Champions

TV/Stream/Radio: ESPN, ESPN+

Odds: Lightning -225

Know the Opponents: Stanley Cup of Chowder

“We’re going to treat this game just like any other.”

That’s how Brandon Hagel answered the query when he was requested in regards to the significance of the Lightning’s match-up towards their division rival Boston Bruins. That’s the inventory reply. Why would anybody anticipate a hockey participant to say the rest? Once the motion will get going, the sport ought to settle right into a rhythm, however anticipate a bizarre begin to the sport because the gamers get adjusted to taking part in outdoors in entrance of 65,000 followers.

Previewing this recreation is hard to do as a result of it’s such a paradigm shift from a traditional NHL recreation. It’s a 6:30 begin. It’s outside. There will likely be pomp. There will likely be circumstance. So, a traditional take a look at the numbers and the way every group is taking part in doesn’t actually apply. It could be like evaluating the primary recreation of a playoff sequence to the final recreation of the common season. There is only a totally different environment.

That being stated, the group that may deal with this similar to some other may have the very best shot on the two factors. Once the preliminary adrenaline of taking part in beneath the lights wears off, the Lightning are going to should discover a approach to get into doing the issues which have labored for them – shield the entrance of the online, get the puck out of the zone, and capitalize on their possibilities.

It seems like they may have Victor Hedman again within the line-up as they slowly get again to full power. A deeper protection ought to assist towards Boston, a group that all the time performs the Lightning powerful. The Bruins aren’t feeling any sympathy for them as they may possible enter the sport with out Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha.

With an 8-1-1 document over their final 10, they’ve clawed their manner again right into a Wild Card spot with a six-point lead over Columbus, the primary group on the skin of the playoff bubble. While they’ve racked up quite a lot of their factors at residence due to a 21-8-1 document, they’ve picked up factors in three of their final 5 street video games (2 wins and an OT loss).

Again, take these numbers with a grain of salt, however on the street they’ve averaged 3.12 GF/GP, boosted by a 29.8% success price on the ability play, second within the league. They’ve additionally allowed 3.52 objectives per recreation on the street, so issues might get slightly wild and wooly tonight.

Look, would it not be good to win tonight? Sure. But it’s extra necessary to benefit from the spectacle. The Lightning fought exhausting to host an outside recreation. There aren’t many instances when a group is the main focus of your entire hockey world, tonight is a kind of.

Potential Lines

Tampa Bay Lightning

Forwards:

Brandon Hagel	Anthony Cirelli	Nikita Kucherov
Jake Guentzel	Dominic James	Gage Goncalves
Zemgus Girgensons	Yanni Gourde	Pontus Holmberg
Jack Finley	Nick Paul	Oliver Bjorkstrand

Defense:

J.J. Moser	Darren Raddysh
Ryan McDonagh	Erik Cernak
Victor Hedman (?)	Max Crozier

Goaltenders:

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Jonas Johansson

Boston Bruins

Forwards:

Morgan Geekie	Marat Khusnutdinov	David Pastrnak
Casey Mittelstadt	Fraser Minton	Viktor Arvidsson
Tanner Jeannot	Matthew Poitras	Mark Kastelic
Alexander Steeves	Sean Kuraly	Mikey Eyssimont

Defense:

Jonathan Aspirot	Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm	Mason Lohrei
Nikita Zadorov	Andrew Peeke

Goaltenders:

Jeremy Swayman

Joonas Korpisalo