Raw Charge
Summary
Time: 9:00 PM Location: Delta Center, Salt Lake City TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, Mammoth+, Utah16, ESPN+, 102.5 The Bone Odds: Lightning +120 Know the Opponents: Utah on Ice Following a season in which they made the playoffs for the first time in their short franchise history, the Utah Mammoth didn’t rest on their laurels or group of young players. They went out and made some moves over the summer that brought in veteran talent. First, they shipped off J.J. Peterka for a first-round pick that they flipped for goaltender Sebastian Cossa. On July 1, not only did they sign Anders Lee and Kevin Stenlund, they also traded for Vincent Trocheck, giving their top-six a bit of a new look. The early returns are positive as the Mammoth currently sit atop the ultra-competitive Central Division with a 7-4-0 record. They’ve stumbled a bit of late, sandwiching losses to Seattle and Edmonton around a win against Pittsburgh, but make no mistake, they are a solid team that plays with pace and an absolutely lethal power play. They’re also going to be rested as they haven’t played since Thursday. Meanwhile, the Bolts are coming off a night of travel after an uneven loss to the Colorado Avalanche where they fired the puck a lot (season-high 76 shot attempts), but failed to get them on net (32 attempts blocked or missed the net) or turn them into dangerous chances (just 10 HDCF) despite multiple power plays. Their passing was out of sequence, turnovers were an issue, and Colorado seemed to put every chance into the net when they had the puck. The good news is that the 6-3 defeat stands as an outlier to how the Lightning have played most of the year, and they’ve shown a solid ability to bounce back with some of their better games following a loss so far on the young season. After they dropped their season opener, they came back with a fairly dominating effort in a 3-1 win over the Capitals that was only kept close by the play of Charlie Lindgren. The same could be said about their 4-3 win over the Kraken after their second loss to the Rangers. There are a couple of different challenges to tonight’s contest. First off, the wins against Washington and Seattle came at home. Second, they had Andrei Vasilevskiy in net. Tonight, they will be on the road with their back-up goaltender in net. the good news is that Dennis Hildeby has been everything the Lightning have hoped for when they acquired him. He’s 2-0 with a .920 SV%, 2.01 GAA, and 1.71 GSAx. Not too shabby indeed. If the Lightning can clean up their passing a little and get back to controlling the neutral zone, it should cut down on the time they spend in their own zone, which is what caused some of their issues against the Avalanche. Utah has been solid defensively, especially on home ice where they are only allowing 17.84 shots/60. There probably won’t be as much open ice as there has been in the games against Vegas and Colorado, so the Bolts are going to have to make sure to capitalize on every opportunity they get. Oh, yeah, they probably won’t want to take too many penalties. The Mammoth have drawn 39 power plays and converted on a league-high 15. They’ve converted multiple power play goals six times on the season already, including a 2-for-3 performance against Seattle in their last game. Fun fact – Nick Smaltz’s five power play goals matches the entire Lightning roster – combined! So, yeah, staying out of the box is probably going to be a good thing. There was no word on the status of Victor Hedman. His last shift ended at the 3:04 mark of the second period and he didn’t return to action. The last time he was on the ice on Friday night was for the scrum following Logan O’Connor’s contact with Andrei Vasilevskiy that led to a goaltender interference penalty for the Avs forward. It didn’t look like Hedman was in any kind of distress leading up to or during the shoving match. If he is out, expect Emil Lilleberg to return to action. While it was an overall bad performance against the Avalanche on Friday, there is something the Lightning can pull from it – the determination that Colorado came out with to start the game. The Avs had lost two games in a row, and had their minds set on making sure it wasn’t going to be a three-game losing streak. They dictated the pace of play and finished off their chances. If the Bolts can come out with that mindset tonight, it will go a long way to making them finishing off this trying road trip with a win. Potential Lines Forwards: Gage Goncalves Brayden Point Nikita Kucherov Brandon Hagel Anthony Cirelli Jake Guentzel Pontus Holmberg Zemgus Girgensons Ilya Mikheyev Jeff Viel Conor Geekie Scott Sabourin Defense: J.J. Moser John Carlson Ryan McDonagh Erik Cernak Charle-Edouard D’Astous Emil Lilleberg Goaltenders: Dennis Hildeby Andrei Vasilevskiy Utah Mammoth Forwards: Clayton Keller Vincent Trocheck Dylan Guenther Logan Cooley Nick Smaltz Lawson Crouse Anders Lee Barrett Hayton Kailer Yamamoto Jack McBain Kevin Stenlund Danil But Defense: Mikhail Sergachev MacKenzie Weegar Nate Schmidt Andrew Peeke Dmitri Simashev Nick Desimone Goaltenders: Karel Vejmelka Sebastian Cossa