Silver Seven<\/a><\/p>\nWell, it\u2019s going to be an interesting line-up tonight for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Reports have them recalling three forwards from the Syracuse Crunch (Dylan Duke, Conor Geekie, and Jakob Pelletier), and considering the amount of banged-up forwards the Lightning have right now, there is a solid chance that all three make it into the line-up.<\/p>\n
Another rash of injuries is the last thing the Lightning wanted or needed as they wrap up the remainder of their regular season, but just as have they done all season long, they just have to find a way to pick up some points. The task will be difficult, but hockey isn\u2019t supposed to be easy. <\/p>\n
Adding to the fun is that they are facing off against an Ottawa team that is desperate for points. They enter the match in the second Wild Card spot with a one point lead over the New York Islanders (enjoying a rare four-day\u2019s off stretch and adjusting to a new coach) and a two-point lead over Detroit and Columbus (who play each other tonight). They have big wins over Buffalo and Carolina sandwiched around a loss to Minnesota.<\/p>\n
Ottawa isn\u2019t going to send any sympathy flowers to the Lightning as they are going through their own injury woes as Tyler Kleven becomes the latest defenseman sidelined by injury. Thomas Chabot may have returned to skating, but he is still a ways out as are depth defenders Nick Jensen and Dennis Gilbert. <\/p>\n
Linus Ullmark is going to be in net for the Senators while Jonas Johansson gets the nod for the Lightning, who are looking to improve on their 7-5-2 record in the second half of back-to-back games. Johansson had a strong outing against Nashville in his last outing, stopping 29-of-31 in the 3-2 win against the Predators. The victory stopped a personal four-game losing streak for Johansson.<\/p>\n
With the number of possible changes up front for the Lightning, it\u2019s going to be key to keep their game simple tonight. Get the puck deep into the zone, forecheck, and finish off on their opportunities. The Bolts, who are averaging 28.73 scoring chances per 60 minutes this season at 5v5 have been held under 20 in three of the last four games (the Pittsburgh game was the one exception). Many of those chances that they have generated have come later in games when they\u2019ve been chasing a deficit, something they don\u2019t want to face with a depleted line-up.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s going to be a kitchen-sink game where the Lightning have to throw everything out there on the ice in order to pick up two points. Will it be another game where they find a way to win? <\/p>\n
Potential Lines<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Lightning<\/p>\n
Forwards:<\/p>\n
Jake GuentzelBrayden Point (?)Nikita KucherovOliver BjorkstrandConor Geekie (?)Gage GoncalvesZemgus GirgensonsYanni GourdeJakob Pelletier (?)Corey PerryNick PaulDylan Duke (?)<\/p>\n
Defense:<\/p>\n
J.J. MoserDarren RaddyshRyan McDonaghErik CernakCharle-Edouard D\u2019AstousEmil Lilleberg<\/p>\n
Goaltenders:<\/p>\n
Jonas JohanssonAndrei Vasilevskiy<\/p>\n
Ottawa Senators<\/p>\n
Forwards:<\/p>\n
Drake BathersonTim StutzleClaude GirouxBrady TkachukDylan CozensRidley GreigNick CousinsShane PintoMichael AmadioWarren FoegeleLars EllerFabian Zetterlund<\/p>\n
Defense:<\/p>\n
Jake SandersonArtem ZubNikolas MatinpaloJordan SpenceLassi ThomsonCameron Crotty<\/p>\n
Goaltenders:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Game Seventy-Eight: Tampa Bay Lightning (48-23-6) at Ottawa Senators (40-27-10) Time: 7:00 PM EST Location: Canadian Tire Centre,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[5,4,72,25,5157,73],"class_list":{"0":"post-546005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-ottawa","11":"tag-ottawa-senators","12":"tag-ottawasenators","13":"tag-senators"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116364827884640008","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546005","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=546005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}