The Tampa Bay Lightning are looking to build off of their dominant victory against the Montreal Canadiens, as they head to the third stop of their four game road trip. Tonight, the Lightning will visit the Prudential Center to face off against the New Jersey Devils. The Lightning enter the night with a 17-11-2 record, sitting second in the Atlantic Division behind only the Detroit Red Wings. Meanwhile, the Devils are sitting outside of a playoff spot with a 17-12-1 record. Injuries will be a major factor in tonight’s game, as the Lightning are without star defenseman Victor Hedman who left Tuesday night’s game with an injury before subsequently being placed on the injured reserve this morning, joining Ryan McDonagh and Andrei Vasilevskiy. Lightning place Victor Hedman on injured reserve [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/46fe69a9-c842-41c4-b519-dc6631127a13.jpeg] Lightning place Victor Hedman on injured reserve Tampa Bay Lightning captain Victor Hedman has been placed on injured reserve ahead of Thursday’s matchup against the <a href="https://www.nhl.com/devils/">New Jersey Devils</a>. The veteran defenseman left Tuesday’s game in <a href="https://www.nhl.com/canadiens/">Montreal</a> after logging just 6:14 of ice time in the first period. [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/tampa-bay-lightning/latest-news/lightning-place-victor-hedman-on-injured-reserve] As for the Devils, they currently have five players on the injured reserve, including Jack Hughes, Brett Pesce, and Evgenii Dadonov. Forward Timo Meier also took a leave of absence [https://www.nhl.com/devils/news/timo-meier-taking-personal-leave-of-absence-blog-12-11-25] from the team for personal reasons this morning, so the Devils will be significantly shorthanded heading into tonight’s affair. Lightning Projected Lines (based on Tuesday’s lines) Hagel - Cirelli - Kucherov Guentzel - Point - Bjorkstrand Girgensons - Gourde - Holmberg Douglas - Paul - Sabourin Moser - Raddysh D’Astous - Lilleberg Carlile - Crozier Johansson Halverson Devils Projected Lines (per Mike Morreale) Noesen - Hischier - Bratt Palat - Mercer - Cotter Gritsyuk - Glass - Brown Parent - Glendening - Crookshank Siegenthaler - Hamilton Dillon - Hughes White - Nemec Markstrom Allen
