The Lightning and Wild meet for the second time this season.
It’s “Go-Time” for the Tampa Bay Lightning. They’re looking for their fourth consecutive win and after a rocky first half of the season, they have little to no room for error in their path to the playoffs.
“I think our focus right now is on being successful this season and getting into the playoffs. That's where our focus is and right now, at the micro level, our focus is on winning Thursday's game against Minnesota,” GM Julien BriseBois said on Tuesday.
“That's what we need to do. We need to be focused on the task at hand every day and hopefully if we do that and we do a good job, we certainly have what it takes, I think in terms of personnel, to be successful when it's all said and done.”
Minnesota has been in the middle of a rough stretch, only winning one of their last 5 games. That win came from a 5-0 shutout against the New York Islanders on Monday. With that win, Marc Andre-Fleury passed Patrick Roy for sole possession of second on the NHL's all-time goalie wins list.
Pat Maroon, who is expected to have a Lightning video tribute tonight, has been solid this season for the Wild with 14 points in 43 games. That actually matches his season total with the Bolts last year.
As for the Lightning, the goal remains the same, grab as many points as you can. The four-day break has given them a chance to hold two solid practices on Tuesday and Wednesday, and given them a chance to rest both physically and mentally. Mikhail Sergachev, Haydn Fleury and Erik Cernak are still out. That means Max Crozier and Emil Lilleberg will likely be in to fill those spots.
Puck drop is at 7pm.