Tampa Bay Lightning will end his five-game homeland with matches Tuesday and Thursday against the hot Ottawa senators.
While the two games will have a playoff-style feel like the opening competitions in a best-by-seven series, the probability of the two Atlantic Division Act that meets in the first round of the post season is narrow.
A recent power outage in points and Strcky games by the Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets Plus Detroit Red Wing’s Sex Games Winning Row has driven Lightning out of a playoffs.
It is surprising considering Tampa Bay’s Plus-34 goal difference.
“You look at the first three months of the season, and the point was not that difficult,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper after his team went 7-8-1 in a mediocre of January. “And (in January) we played as 14 matches in 24 days, three different time zones, 10 on the road. I would probably say that fatigue was part of it.
“We probably did more than expected, and then we started scoring under expected.”
Nikita Kucherov leads the team in Assists (52) and points (76), while Brandon Hagel is second in points with 54.
Brayden Point has only three points in its last six competitions and has not had a multi -point outing since a three -point performance against the New York Rangers on December 28.
Not much has slowed down the Senators, who beat Tampa Bay 5-4 in the first meeting in Canada’s capital on October 19.
However, Ottawa suffered a blow when it announced on Monday that Josh Norris (Mid-Body) did not travel on the four-game road trip and will probably miss a few weeks after two hard hits in Saturday’s 6-0-trashing of the Minnesota Wild.
In a dominant way, the Senators exceeded the Minnesota 52-16 and gave the home club a perfect 4-0 mark at home.
Ottawa recalled Cole Reinhardt from Belleville in the American Hockey League to replace Norris, which has 19 goals.
“Every time someone goes out, it’s another opportunity for someone else to come in,” said Senator’s coach Travis Green. “(Reinhardt) will pull in the lineup tonight, and someone else will play center.”
That someone was Ridly Greig, who counted on the second line in Monday’s 5-2 road victory over the Nashville Predators.
Goalkeeper Anton Forsberg made 25 rescues to lift the senators to his fifth straight triumph and highlighted the second time this season they have won a line in at least five matches.
Linus Ullmark, who has not played in 19 matches since she was injured on December 22, backed up Forsberg and will probably be in the fold in Tuesday’s back-to-back first competition in Tampa.
Ottawas Tim Stutzle, 23, noted his 300th point with an assist on a goal by Adam Gaudette.
Defender Jake Sanderson scored a goal in his third straight match to move his point streak to five matches (three goals, six assists), and David Perron scored his first goal with the senators in his 15th match with the club.
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