Tampa Bay will play their first of four games this season against their Atlantic Division opponent Boston Bruins.
The Lightning are coming off an interesting week of games. After going 0-3 on their California roadtrip, they came back home to Tampa and won a grind-it-out type of game against the Carolina Hurricanes. It was close as expected and Thursday's game against the Boston Bruins will be no different.
A divisional win would go a long way for the Lightning. They're one point behind the Bruins but still have five games in hand. Right now they hold the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, but only have a two-point lead on the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Lightning come into this game with the 4th best Power Play in the NHL at 26.6%.
"They're coming off a loss, and we're coming off a tough stretch too, but were able to win the last game, but yeah.. it's always fun," Victor Hedman said of their matchup against the Boston Bruins.
"We've played a lot of games and we know each other inside and out, but they're always fun games, intense games, and the fans get into it, so it's always a great time to play against these guys"
Boston is coming off a 4-0 loss against the Oilers and have dropped 5 of their last six games. Jeremy Swayman will be in net. Puck drop is at 7pm EST.
Here's a look at the lines from Thursday's practice:
Forwards
Jake Guentzel - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel - Anthony Cirelli - Conor Geekie
Mitchell Chaffee - Nick Paul - Mikey Eyssimont
Zemgus Girgensons - Luke Glendening - Cam Atkinson
Defensemen
Victor Hedman - Darren Raddysh
Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg - Nick Perbix
Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy