The Lightning and Islanders face off for an early matinee matchup at USB arena.
When: Saturday, February 14 @2pm EST
Where: UBS Arena
Radio: 102.5 The Bone, Lightning Radio
Where to stream: BallySports.com
Lines from Thursday's Game (these could change)
Forwards
Steven Stamkos - Anthony Cirelli - Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel - Brayden Point - Mitchell Chaffee
Mikey Eyssimont - Nick Paul - Conor Sheary
Cole Koepke - Luke Glendening - Tyler Motte
Defensemen
Victor Hedman - Darren Raddysh
Haydn Fleury - Nick Perbix
Emil Lilleberg - Calvin de Haan
Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy
The Lightning will face the Islanders for an early puck drop on Saturday afternoon. After dropping their last three games at home, there’s both a want and a need to get back on track in their quest to make the playoffs.
The most obvious pathway to securing two points, is to tighten up on defense. During the January stretch where the Lightning went 11-4, they posted a 2.62 GA/60. Overall throughout the season that number is 3.39. As Jon Cooper says regularly, giving up four or more goals in a game makes it incredibly difficult to win.
The Islanders have been struggling with generating an offense this year, ranking 22nd in the league at 2.89 goals per game. They're coming off a 4-0 shutout on Thursday by the St. Louis Blues, where they surrendered three goals in the span of 32 seconds.
Ahead of the 2pm puck drop, the Lightning made two roster moves, announcing they’ve recalled defenseman Max Crozier from AHL Syracuse. In addition, Alex Barre-Boulet was sent to the Crunch. Erik Cernak was scratched for illness on Thursday night, but we have not gotten word of his status yetfor tonight's game.
The race for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference is tight. Currently the Islanders are chasing the Lightning by five points with two games in-hand, making this matchup a big one.
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