Tampa Bay Lightning (16-10-2, 34 Pts) at Toronto Maple Leafs (13-11-4, 30 Pts)

Venue: Scotiabank Arena
Date: Monday, December 8
Time: 7:30 pm EST
TV: Amazon Prime
Radio:
Tampa Bay – 102.5 FM
Toronto – SN 590

DraftKings Sportsbook Betting Lines:

Tampa Bay -1.5 ML -270
Toronto +1.5 ML +220
O/U 6.5

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Tampa Bay Lightning News & Notes:

The Tampa Bay Lightning come into tonight’s matchup looking to rebound after their impressive seven-game winning streak was snapped with three consecutive losses. The Lightning have been quite successful this season, especially considering the fact that they’ve had many injuries this season, too. The Toronto Maple Leafs sit just four points back of the Lightning, and tonight’s game has the potential to be a four-point swing, so the Lightning will look to stop their losing streak at three games and find more offense once again tonight.

Toronto Maple Leafs News & Notes:

The Toronto Maple Leafs have played a much better game of late, but still have shown concerning signs of partial efforts, including a shootout loss to the divisional Canadiens this past Saturday, where the team didn’t seem to show up for the first 40 minutes. The Leafs will look to quickly get back into the win column tonight, as they push their way out of the basement of the Atlantic. Hildeby has the net, while Jarnkrok and Mermis draw back into the lineup for Robertson and Myers.

Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines

Guentzel-Point-Paul
Hagel-Cirelli-Kucherov
Holmberg-Gourde-Girgensons
Goncalves-Finley-Bjorkstrand

Hedman-Crozier
Moser-Raddysh
D’astous-Lilleberg

Johansson
Halverson

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Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines

Knies-Matthews-Domi
Cowan-Tavares-Nylander
Joshua-Roy-McMann
Lorentz-Laughton-Jarnkrok

Rielly-Ekman Larsson
McCabe-Stecher
Benoit-Mermis

Hildeby
Akhtyamov

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Players To Watch:

Tampa Bay Lightning

Nikita Kucherov is back in the lineup tonight after missing Tampa’s last game with an injury. Kucherov has once again been performing at a well-above point-per-game pace with 34 points in 25 games. Kucherov draws back into the lineup at the perfect time, as the Lightning lost without him on Saturday, extending their losing streak to three games. With a tight divisional race, every game matters, especially a divisional rival game, so adding their best player and Brayden Point back to the lineup comes at the ideal time.

Toronto Maple Leafs

After a hot start to the season, the second line’s offense has cooled off. Tavares and Nylander have been debatably the best two players for the Leafs this season, but have only scored one goal each in the past five games. The Leafs are against a high-offense team tonight, and if the Leafs want to build success and climb up the standings, they will need their best players to perform. Toronto’s second line will need to be effective, and rookie Easton Cowan will need to continue pushing to prove his worth on this team and line.

Injury Report:

Tampa Bay Lightning

D Erik Cernak – Out
G Andrei Vasilevskiy – Out
D Ryan McDonagh – Out

Toronto Maple Leafs

G Joseph Woll – Out
G Anthony Stolarz – Out
D Chris Tanev – Out
D Brandon Carlo – Out

Next Game

Tampa Bay – December 10 vs Carolina Hurricanes
Toronto – December 10 at Columbus Blue Jackets

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