Tampa Bay Lightning hopes to be able to pick up where they quit before the four nations’ facial interruptions.
Winner of an Eastern Conference-High Four straight matches, Lightning will start its season on Sunday evening by hosting the Seattle Kraken.
On December 14, Tampa Bay ended a four-game walk of 3-1-0 with a 5-1 paste of the Kraken, which constantly improved Lightnings against the Pacific Division team to 6-0-1.
Basically, Tampa Bay has done to have done what it has done with the NHL this month, but it was not easy in four matches for six days against division opponents before Hiatus.
Goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevskiy won for the fourth straight start on February 9, which made 32 rescues to win both ends of a back-to-back set in Detroit and Montreal and go 5-0-1 before the break.
“We had four matches in six nights – not even six nights,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “It’s a grinding, this league. We were 3-9 in the division, but we got eight points in four matches.”
Nikita Kucherov leads the team in Assists (57) and points (82) this season.
The Kraken has two strikes against them in an endeavor to make the playoffs for the second time in their four seasons in the NHL, as the time frame and the scheduling do not work in the advantage of Seattle.
The Kraken beat Florida Panthers 2-1 on Saturday night but has played 58 matches, a Western conference high amount that is only equalized by Colorado.
On the schedule front, the Kraken must play four more matches on the road than at home in the rest. They are better at Hemsis and note points in 17 of 31 competitions (13-14-4).
In the victory over the Stanley Cup champions, Jared McCann crushed the game winner against his former team. Kaapo Kakko also scored, and Shane Wright published two assists in moving Seattle’s record all the time to 5-2-1 against Florida.
However, the only victory over Tampa Bay was 4-3 in overtime on October 30, 2023.
Captain Jordan Eberle, 34, returned on Saturday after an absence of 40 games due to a pelvic injury and logged 14:03 of ice age and put two of Seatles 22 shots on goal.
“Many other guys, if they were injured, I don’t think they would be back as fast as he is,” McCann said. “He was so motivated. He is so mentally strong that he was just like,” It’s a bolt on the road and I will move forward. “
“He’s amazing to have around, especially for the young guys to see a guy go through a pretty big damage and just be so positive.”
Jaden Schwartz tops Seattle with 18 goals, while McCann has 43 points.
Brandon Montour, who hoisted the cup with Panthers last season, leads defensive corps with 27 points (10 goals, 17 assists).
In his 25 games since he was traded west on December 18 from the New York Rangers, Kakko has 18 points (six goals, 12 assists).
-Field level media
