The Lightning and Maple Leafs are playing their third of four matchups tonight.
When: Wednesday, April 3 @ 7pm EST
Where: Scotiabank Arena - Toronto, ON
TV: Bally Sports
Radio coverage: 102.5 The Bone, Lightning Radio
Where to stream: BallySports.com
Lines from Wednesday's Practice (these could change)
Forwards
Anthony Duclair - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Steven Stamkos - Anthony Cirelli - Brandon Hagel
Mikey Eyssimont - Nick Paul - Mitchell Chaffee
Tanner Jeannot - Luke Glendening - Tyler Motte
Defensemen
Victor Hedman - Darren Raddysh
Matt Dumba - Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg - Nick Perbix
Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy
The Bolts’ nine-game point streak did eventually come to an end on Monday night in a 4-2 loss against the Red Wings. They made a few mistakes in coverage in front of the net and that cost them. That loss, paired with the Leafs’ win over Florida, gave Toronto some breathing room for the third-place spot in the Atlantic.
The Lightning will play their last set of back-to-back games of the regular season, tonight and Thursday. They currently sit six points out from the Leafs for the first Wild Card spot.
Early on in the season, while the Lightning were still sorting out their new roster, they lost two overtime games to Toronto in late October and early November. Those games were part of a tough overtime stretch where they had difficulty winning the 3-on-3 overtime face-offs. Since then, they've figured out their overtime struggles, pushed through a significant amount of adversity, and have started to turn the corner following the March 8th trade deadline.
On the Toronto side, Morgan Reilly is expected to be back in the line-up after missing the last four games with an upper-body injury. Mitch Marner, Calle Jarnkrok, Joel Edmundson, and Timothy Liljegren are out.
Goaltending
As expected, Andrei Vasilevskiy is in net against Toronto tonight. Backup goaltender Jonas Johansson, who was expected to start for the second half of the back-to-back in Montreal, is out with a lower-body injury.
That leaves AHL Syracuse Goaltender Matt Tomkins, who was added to the roster on Tuesday as an emergency recall. Tomkins has had a solid season for the Crunch, allowing two or fewer goals in 12 of his last 16 games. His first and only NHL win, ironically happened in Montreal back in Novemeber.
For Toronto, Joseph Woll was first to leave the ice during morning skate, which indicates he’ll be in net for Toronto.
These two teams never fail to be entertaining, which should make for a good game. Puck drop is at 7pm.