{"id":404146,"date":"2026-01-12T22:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/404146\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T22:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:54:14","slug":"tampa-bay-lightning-week-ahead-schedule-storylines-offensive-surge-kucherov-injuries-and-more-the-hockey-writers-tampa-bay-lightning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/404146\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning Week Ahead: Schedule & Storylines – Offensive Surge, Kucherov, Injuries and More – The Hockey Writers – Tampa Bay Lightning"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Lightning are entering the week of Jan. 12, 2026 as one of the hottest teams in the NHL, riding a significant win streak despite missing their captain.<\/p>\n

Historic Offensive Surge & Winning Streak <\/p>\n

The Lightning are currently on a nine-game winning streak<\/a>. Their offense has been explosive, scoring seven goals in back-to-back road games (vs. Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 10 and San Jose Sharks on Jan. 3). They sit near the top of the league in goals scored.<\/p>\n

Kucherov\u2019s Hart-Level Pace <\/p>\n

Nikita Kucherov is in dominant form, having recorded multiple points in eight consecutive games. He recently posted a four-point night <\/a>(two goals, two assists) against Philadelphia on Jan. 10. He continues to lead the team\u2019s offense and remains a contender for league MVP conversations.<\/p>\n

Navigating Injuries on Defense <\/p>\n

The team is winning despite a depleted blue line<\/a>. Captain Victor Hedman remains on Injured Reserve (IR) with an elbow injury and is not expected back until February (targeting a return before the Stadium Series or Olympics). Additionally, veteran defenseman Ryan McDonagh is on IR with an undisclosed injury, forcing younger defensemen like Darren Raddysh and J.J. Moser to play heavy minutes. <\/p>\n

Stadium Series & Olympic Buzz <\/p>\n

Off the ice, anticipation is building for the Stadium Series game against the Boston Bruins at Raymond James Stadium on Feb. 1. Furthermore, 11 Lightning players<\/a> were recently selected to represent their respective countries in the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.<\/p>\n

Lightning Schedule Jan 12 \u2013 18<\/p>\n

DateTime (ET)OpponentVenueMon, Jan 127:00 PM@ Philadelphia FlyersXfinity Mobile ArenaTue, Jan 137:00 PM@ Pittsburgh PenguinsPPG Paints ArenaFri, Jan 168:00 PM@ St. Louis BluesEnterprise CenterSun, Jan 182:00 PM@ Dallas StarsAmerican Airlines Center<\/p>\n

AI tools were used to support the creation or distribution of this content, however, it has been carefully edited and fact-checked by a member of The Hockey Writers editorial team. For more information on our use of AI, please visit our Editorial Standards<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Lightning are entering the week of Jan. 12, 2026 as one of the hottest teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5105],"tags":[5,189,4,1335,540,92,5168,5167,1498],"class_list":{"0":"post-404146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-lightning","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-nikita-kucherov","12":"tag-tampa-bay","13":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","14":"tag-tampabay","15":"tag-tampabaylightning","16":"tag-victor-hedman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115884593263790745","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}