Raw Charge
Summary
Time: 6:00 PM EST Location: Canada Life Centre, Winnipeg TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, TSN3, ESPN+, 102.5 Odds: Lightning -140 Know the Opponents: Arctic Ice Hockey Season Series: Lightning 1-0, Tampa Bay 6, Winnipeg 4 After dispatching a tired Winnipeg team at home last week, the roles are a bit reversed for the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight as they are the team coming off of a back-to-back while the Jets have been sitting around since Thursday. They’ve also found their winning ways. The loss to the Lightning was the seventh of nine in a row in which Winnipeg failed to find victory. They snapped the losing streak in historic fashion to the Montreal Canadiens and then steam-rolled the Vancouver Canucks in their last outing. A dormant offense has sprung to life as they scored 11 goals in two games after netting just 16 total during their losing streak. It’s been a team-wide effort for them as ten different players scored while 16 recorded a point in the two victories. Not bad for a team that had been extremely top-heavy in scoring for most of the season. The Lightning could also be seeing a couple of different players as it appears young prospect Brayden Yager may draw into the line-up. An even bigger addition could be coming to the blue line as Josh Morrissey is a game-time decision. The team’s best defenseman has been out of the line-up since early October with an upper-body injury, but was a full participant at practice earlier this week. He’s targeted this weekend as his return to action. Meanwhile, the Lightning are coming off of one of their more impressive wins of the season. After staggering out of the gates and finding themselves down 2-0 after just three minutes of play, they stuck with their game plan, and used their power play, to climb out of the hole before Nikita Kucherov won it in overtime. Coach Jon Cooper highlighted the play of the Jeff Viel, Conor Geekie, and Scott Sabourin as one of the big reasons the team was able to stabilize their play and claw their way to two points. While the trio was on the ice for a goal against, they also posted an 11-2 edge in shot attempts, 6-2 advantage in shots on net, and out-chanced their opponents 5-1. Not a bad bit of work for 6:37 of ice time at 5v5. Geekie continued his push for more playing time as he had five shot attempts, three individual scoring chances while winning five-of-eight of his face-offs. Being able to tilt the ice when the big guns are on the bench is a huge advantage for a road team. Andrei Vasilevskiy should be back in net tonight after Dennis Hildeby had the honors against Minnesota. Will he be motivated? Probably. Winnipeg is one of four teams that he has a losing record against. In his career he is 7-8-1 against them, including 1-4-1 on the road. The Big Cat rarely needs extra hype to be at his best, but bettering those numbers might give just a little extra juice to pick up the victory. Much like their netminder, the Bolts have struggled overall in Winnipeg. They are 21-26-3 all-time against the Jets/Thrashers/Jets franchise in Manitoba (and Atlanta) and have lost their last five games when heading to the frozen prairies. During the losing streak they’ve been outscored 26-13. The Bolts picked up one win in a “house of horrors” by beating Minnesota to begin this two-part road trip. So, it qualifies as a good trip so far. Picking up another win would make it a great one. Potential Lines (based on playing time against Minnesota) Forwards: Jake Guentzel Brayden Point Nikita Kucherov Brandon Hagel Anthony Cirelli Yanni Gourde Pontus Holmberg Zemgus Girgensons Ilya Mikheyev Jeff Viel Conor Geekie Defense: J.J. Moser Victor Hedman Ryan McDonagh Erik Cernak Charle-Edouard D’Astous John Carlson Max Crozier Goaltenders: Andrei Vasilevskiy Dennis Hildeby Winnipeg Jets Forwards: Kyle Connor Mark Scheifele Gabe Vilardi Cole Perfetti Brayden Yager Dawson Mercer Alex Iafello Adam Lowry Viggo Bjorck Cole Koepke Morgan Barron Isak Rosen Defense: Dylan Samberg Neal Pionk Mario Ferrero Dylan Demelo Hayden Fleury Tyrel Bauer Goaltenders: Stuart Skinner Nico Daws