The Tampa Bay Lightning will conclude their five-game homestand with matches Tuesday and Thursday against the hot Ottawa Senators.
While the two games will have a playoff-style feel like the opening contests of a best-of-seven series, the likelihood of the two Atlantic Division teams meeting in the postseason’s first round is slim.
A recent power outage in scoring and streaky play by the Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets plus the Detroit Red Wings’ six-game winning streak have pushed the Lightning out of a playoff spot.
That’s surprising given Tampa Bay’s plus-34 goal differential.
“You look at the first three months of the season, and scoring wasn’t that difficult,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said after his team went 7-8-1 in a mediocre January. “And (in January) we played like 14 games in 24 days, three different time zones, 10 on the road. I’d probably say fatigue was a part of it.
“We were probably scoring more than expected, and then we started scoring way below expected.”
Nikita Kucherov leads the team in assists (52) and points (76), while Brandon Hagel is second in points with 54.
Brayden Point has just three points in his past six contests and has not had a multi-point outing since a three-point performance against the New York Rangers on Dec. 28.
Not much has slowed the Senators, who beat Tampa Bay 5-4 in the first meeting in Canada’s capital on Oct. 19.
However, Ottawa suffered a blow when it announced Monday that Josh Norris (mid-body) did not travel on the four-game road trip and likely will miss a few weeks after two hard hits in Saturday’s 6-0 thrashing of the Minnesota Wild.
In dominant fashion, the Senators outshot Minnesota 52-16 and gave the home club a perfect 4-0-0 mark on the homestand.
Ottawa recalled Cole Reinhardt from Belleville of the American Hockey League to replace Norris, who has 19 goals.
“Any time someone goes out, it’s another opportunity for someone else to come in,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “(Reinhardt) will draw in the lineup tonight, and someone else will play center.”
That someone was Ridly Greig, who tallied on the second line in Monday’s 5-2 road win over the Nashville Predators.
Goaltender Anton Forsberg made 25 saves to lift the Senators to their fifth straight triumph, marking the second time this season that they have had winning streaks of at least five matches.
Linus Ullmark, who has not played in 19 games since being injured on Dec. 22, backed up Forsberg and likely will be in the crease in Tuesday’s back-to-back first contest in Tampa.
Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle, 23, notched his 300th point with an assist on a goal by Adam Gaudette.
Defenseman Jake Sanderson scored a goal in his third straight game to move his point streak to five games (three goals, six assists), and David Perron scored his first goal with the Senators in his 15th game with the club.
–Field Level Media
