As the playoffs rapidly approach, every single game is important for the Tampa Bay Lightning. With that being said, tonight's matchup against the Montreal Canadiens has a little more importance behind it.
The Lightning enter tonight's game atop the Eastern Conference, but the Canadiens are hot on their tail, sitting just four points back. Montreal has been on fire as of late though, winning five-straight games heading into tonight.
The Lightning have won two games in a row without superstar forward Nikita Kucherov, but they may get him back for tonight's game. He's currently listed as a game-time decision.
The game will be broadcast on The Spot in the Tampa television market, while it'll be on TSN2 and RDS in Canada. For those out of market, it'll be available on ESPN+.
Projected Lines (Per NHL.com)
Tampa Bay:
Brandon Hagel - Anthony Cirelli - Nikita Kucherov*
Gage Gonclaves - Brayden Point - Jake Guentzel
Zemgus Girgensons - Yanni Gourde - Pontus Holmberg
Corey Perry - Nick Paul - Scott Sabourin
Darren Raddysh - J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg - Charle-Edouard D’Astous
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
* Game-time decision
Montreal:
Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Juraj Slafkovsky
Alex Newhook - Oliver Kapanen - Ivan Demidov
Zachary Bolduc - Jake Evans - Josh Anderson
Joe Veleno - Phillip Danault - Brendan Gallagher
Mike Matheson - Noah Dobson
Jayden Struble - Lane Hutson
Kaiden Guhle - Arber Xhekaj
Jakub Dobes
Jacob Fowler