Tampa Bay will open their five-game homestand with a rematch against Chicago.
After a brutal schedule of games in the month of January, the Lightning are back home at Amalie Arena for the foreseeable future ahead of the 4 Nations break. They'll open their five-game homestand with a matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks who they faced just last week.
The Lightning won last Friday’s game in Chicago 4-3 in overtime. Jake Guentzel and Nikita Kucherov both scored, with Kucherov scoring the overtime winner on a 4-on-3 power play.
Right now the Lightning have the third best goal differential and are a Top 10 team in every major statistical category. When you look at the numbers in the first 48 games of the season, they should probably be higher in the standings than what they're showing. Now with the schedule letting up a bit, they have a chance to start grabbing points at home.
"The problem is we're struggling to score now," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "And so I think anybody who watched Detroit game, saw that we had ample opportunity to score and we couldn't do it. And even the Chicago game before that, it was tooth and nail."
"The goal scoring at times in the season does dry up, but you just have to continue to stick to your process, and our process has been excellent."
The Lightning recalled defenseman Declan Carlile and forward Gage Goncalves from Syracuse on Monday after it was announced that defenseman Emil Lilleberg would be suspended for two games for interference against Detroit’s J.T. Compher.
Noteworthy: Nikita Kucherov took a slight tumble during morning skate on Tuesday. Jon Cooper confirmed in his pregame availability that Kucherov was "fine".
Here's a look at the lines from Tuesday's Morning Skate:
Forwards
Jake Guentzel - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel - Anthony Cirelli - Conor Geekie
Zemgus Girgensons - Nick Paul - Gage Goncalves
Mitchell Chaffee - Luke Glendening - Mikey Eyssimont
Defensemen
Victor Hedman - Darren Raddysh
Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak
Declan Carlile - Nick Perbix
Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy