Natural Stat Trick<\/a><\/p>\nYup. Definitely a tale of two teams heading in opposite directions. So, the Lightning can just throw their sticks on the ice and pick up another two points, right? Oh, no, that\u2019s so very wrong. Seattle is going to be a desperate team as they cling to their playoff dreams. They are going to throw everything they have against the Lightning tonight, and the Bolts will have to be buttoned up tight if they want to pick up another win and keep the pressure on Buffalo (who lost in overtime on Wednesday).<\/p>\n
During this recent points streak, the Lightning have been better at limiting the chances against them, especially those of a high-danger variety. During this stretch of play, they are allowing just 7.20 against. When the Bolts were struggling at the beginning of the month, they were allowing 14.16 HDCA\/60. It\u2019s not advanced trigonometry to state that cutting down on the number of Grade A chances an opponent gets is the best way to keep the puck out of your own net, and that\u2019s what the Lightning have been doing for the most part of late.<\/p>\n
They haven\u2019t been perfect, and there have been some rocky moments over the streak, but they are finding ways to pick up points, and there game is improving from period to period. Literally. Over the last five games their goal differentials are:<\/p>\n
First Period: 4-5<\/p>\n
Second Period: 11-5<\/p>\n
Third Period: 11-2<\/p>\n
Get the lead. Protect the lead. Extend the lead. <\/p>\n
The formula for winning tonight will be the same as it was just over a week ago. Clean breakouts and strong play along the bluelines. They did a really good job of harassing the Seattle puck-carriers coming out of the zone in the 6-2 win. If they can keep that pressure up on Seattle\u2019s breakouts, it will force turnovers in the neutral zone and allow them to counter and keep the Kraken on their heels. <\/p>\n
They also did a good job of standing up at their own blueline and forcing Seattle to dump the puck into the zone. The Bolts often get in trouble when they concede entries too often and too easily. They don\u2019t want to be backpedaling as the Kraken forwards drive into the zone. Hold the line and then retrieve the pucks cleanly. That\u2019s a recipe for success and another two points. <\/p>\n
Potential Lines<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Lightning<\/p>\n
Forwards:<\/p>\n
Gage GoncalvesBrayden PointJake GuentzelBrandon HagelAnthony CirelliNikita KucherovZemgus GirgensonsYanni GourdePontus HolmbergCorey PerryNick PaulScott Sabourin (?)<\/p>\n
Defense:<\/p>\n
J.J. MoserDarren RaddyshRyan McDonaghErik CernakCharle-Edouard D\u2019AstousEmil LIlleberg<\/p>\n
Goaltenders:<\/p>\n
Andrei VasilevskiyJonas Johansson<\/p>\n
Seattle Kraken<\/p>\n
Forwards:<\/p>\n
Berkly CattonMatty BerniersJordan EberleBobby McMannChandler StephensonKaapo KakkoEeli TolvanenShane WrightFrederick GaudreauBen MeyersJacob Melanson<\/p>\n
Defense:<\/p>\n
Vince DunnAdam LarssonRyan LindgrenBrandon MontourJamie OleksiakRyker Evans<\/p>\n
Goaltenders:<\/p>\n
Joey DaccordPhillip Grubauer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Game Seventy-One : Seattle Kraken (31-29-10) at Tampa Bay Lightning (44-21-5) Time: 7:00 PM EST Location: Benchmark International…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[5,4188,4,2686,234,5318],"class_list":{"0":"post-524011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-kraken","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-kraken","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-seattle","12":"tag-seattle-kraken","13":"tag-seattlekraken"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116296298728039193","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524011","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=524011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}