With a new team captain and a new star centre, the Lightning are off to a fast start at 3-0.
For the first time in 16 years, the Ottawa Senators will face a Tampa Bay Lightning team without Steven Stamkos.
Stamkos signed a four-year, $32 million contract with the Nashville Predators on July 1 after playing his first 16 NHL seasons with the Lightning. He's been Tampa Bay's captain since 2014 and the franchise's all-time leader in goals, points and power-play goals.
But that doesn't mean the Lightning aren't still dynamic as hell.
As they roll into Ottawa (1 pm faceoff, SN, RDS), they're off to a 3-0 start to the young season and look like they're ready to contend once again.
- They acquired forward Jake Guentzel and signed him to a seven-year, $63 million contract.
- Nikita Kucherov is back, doing Nikita Kucherov things, posting six goals in his first three games.
- After an average season in 2023-24, Andrei Vasilevskiy has returned to Stanley Cup form. Vasilevskiy has a 1.67 goals-against average and a .932 save percentage through his first three games.
- Victor Hedman is still a stud on that Tampa blue line, armed with a new contract and Stamkos's "C" now embroidered on his left shoulder.
Former Senator Nick Paul is off to a nice start for the Lightning with three points in three games. With 24 goals and 46 points last season, the big two-way forward is on one of the most team-friendly deals in the league, locked up for five more years at $3.1 million AAV.
In 2022, Ottawa traded Paul to Tampa for Mathieu Joseph and a fourth-rounder (Blake Montgomery). To free up cap space, the Sens shipped Joseph and a third-rounder to St. Louis for nothing this summer.
With Linus Ullmark expected to miss a third straight game with an injury, Anton Forsberg is likely to get the start in goal. Forsberg had a decent performance against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night. Belleville's Mads Sogaard remains with the big club as the backup.
Sens head coach Travis Green told Gord Wilson from TSN 1200 radio that Ullmark remains close, but the club wants to play it safe.
Artem Zub (concussion) and Ridly Greig (upper body) remain out of the Ottawa lineup with injuries, but both are tracking to return before the end of October.
Based on line combinations at Thursday's practice, the Senators may shuffle the deck a little today. The pairs of Tkachuk-Stutzle, Pinto-Perron, and Norris-Batherson remained intact.
Tkachuk-Stützle-Amadio
Gregor-Pinto-Perron
Giroux-Norris-Batherson
Cousins-Gaudette-MacEwen
Sanderson-Hamonic
Chabot-Jensen
Kleven-JBD
Here's the head-to-head breakdown, noting that some numbers are still a little wonky due to a small, early-season sample size.