The Tampa Bay Lightning are officially back from their Christmas break, and they’re getting thrown right back into the fire.

It won’t be a casual return to work for the Lightning, as their first game back is against their arch-rival, the Florida Panthers on Saturday night. The home team has yet to win a Battle of Florida this season, as in their first meeting, the Lightning were victorious in Sunrise with a score of 3-1. In their last meeting, the Panthers came to Tampa and defeated the Lightning 5-2. 

Also in that most recent meeting, the Lightning lost forward Brandon Hagel to injury who was hit in the head by Seth Jones. It marked the third straight game against the Panthers that Hagel took a hit to the head. He’s questionable to return for tonight’s game, but we’ll likely get more clarification closer to game time. 

Panthers forward Sam Bennett has four goals and eight points in their last five games, leading the team in both categories. Meanwhile, Brad Marchand leads the team in that time frame with five assists. 

As for the Lightning, Jake Guentzel’s two goals and six points in the last five games leads the team, while Nikita Kucherov has five assists in five games. 

Tampa Bay Lines (Courtesy of Daily Faceoff):

Gourde – Point -Kucherov

Guentzel – Paul – Bjorkstrand 

Holmberg – Cirelli – Girgensons

Finley – James – Goncalves

Moser – Raddysh

McDonagh – D’Astous

Carlile – Crozier

Vasilevskiy

Florida Lines (Courtesy of Daily Faceoff)

Luostarinen – Lundell – Reinhart

Greer – Bennett – Marchand

Boqvist – Rodrigues – Verhaeghe

Gregor – Kunin – Studnicka

Forsling – Ekblad

Mikkola – Jones

Balinskis – Petry

Bobrovsky