The Lightning’s road trip ends in Salt Lake City on Monday night, and they arrive with a useful reset sitting right in front of them. After a 6-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay gets one more shot away from home against a Utah Mammoth team that has looked dangerous early, rested since Thursday and sitting on top of the Central Division at 7-4-0.
Utah’s rise has come with a new cast around a group that already reached the playoffs for the first time in franchise history last season. Over the summer, the Mammoth added veteran help in a few different ways: J.J.
Peterka was moved for a first-round pick that was then flipped for goaltender Sebastian Cossa; then on July 1, the team signed Anders Lee and Kevin Stenlund and traded for Vincent Trocheck. That reshaped top-six has helped fuel the strong start.
The Mammoth have slipped a little recently, with losses to Seattle and Edmonton wrapped around a win over Pittsburgh, but they still look like a tough out. Their pace stands out, and so does their power play. At home, they’ve also been stingy, allowing just 17.84 shots/60.
That’s part of what makes the task tricky for Tampa Bay after the Avalanche game. The Lightning fired away in that loss, posting a season-high 76 shot attempts, but too many never reached the net or became anything dangerous.
Colorado blocked or forced misses on 32 attempts, Tampa Bay managed only 10 HDCF, and the passing game never quite found its rhythm. Turnovers piled up, and the Avalanche made the most of their chances.
Still, that result doesn’t match what the Lightning have shown for most of the season. They’ve bounced back well after losses already, including a 3-1 win over the Capitals after their opener and a 4-3 victory over the Kraken after their second loss to the Rangers.
This one brings a different set of hurdles, though: those bounce-back wins came at home, and they came with Andrei Vasilevskiy in net. Tonight the Lightning are on the road with their backup in goal.
That backup has handled the job well so far. Dennis Hildeby is 2-0 with a .920 SV%, a 2.01 GAA and 1.71 GSAx.
The margin for error figures to be thin. Utah’s home defense has been hard to crack, and with the Mammoth drawing 39 power plays and converting a league-high 15, discipline matters even more.
They’ve scored multiple power-play goals six times already, including a 2-for-3 night against Seattle in their last game. Nick Smaltz’s five power-play goals match the entire Lightning roster combined.
Tampa Bay also enters the night with some uncertainty on defense. There was no word on Victor Hedman’s status after his last shift ended at 3:04 of the second period against Colorado.
His final appearance came during the scrum after Logan O’Connor’s contact with Andrei Vasilevskiy, which led to a goaltender interference penalty for the Avalanche forward. He didn’t appear to be in distress before or during that exchange.
If Hedman can’t go, Emil Lilleberg is expected to return.
The Lightning can at least take one message from the Colorado game: the way the Avalanche started. Colorado had lost two in a row and came out determined to avoid a third.
They controlled the pace and finished their chances. Tampa Bay will need that same edge if it wants to finish the road trip with a win.
For Tampa Bay, the projected forwards are Gage Goncalves, Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel; Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov; Pontus Holmberg, Zemgus Girgensons and Ilya Mikheyev; and Dominic James with Conor Geekie. The defense group is listed as J.J. Moser and John Carlson; Ryan McDonagh and Erik Cernak; and Charle-Edouard D’Astous and Max Crozier, with Emil Lilleberg also in the mix.
Utah’s projected forwards are Clayton Keller, Vincent Trocheck and Dylan Guenther; Logan Cooley, Nick Smaltz and Lawson Crouse; Anders Lee, Barrett Hayton and Kailer Yamamoto; and Jack McBain, Kevin Stenlund and Danil But. On defense, the Mammoth are listed with Mikhail Sergachev and MacKenzie Weegar; Nate Schmidt and Andrew Peeke; and Dmitri Simashev and Nick Desimone.
In Other News...
Lightning Get A Harsh Reminder Against The NHLs Best
The Lightning ran into the kind of night that can remind a team just how sharp the NHLs best can be. Colorado beat Tampa Bay 6-3 in Denver, with the Avalanche getting goals from Martin Necas, Artturi Lehkonen, Devon Toews, Nazem Kadri and Fedor Svechkov while Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 31 shots behind them.
Jake Guentzel gave Tampa Bay a pair of goals, but the Lightning could not keep pace once Colorado settled in and started tilting the game. Nathan MacKinnon was right at the center of it throughout, setting the tone for the Avalanche offense and leaving Tampa Bay with another look at the margin for error it faces against an elite opponent. [Read more 🡒]
Lightning Affiliate Showed Serious Fight But One Problem Still Lingers
The Syracuse Crunch showed plenty of push in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Rochester Americans at Upstate Medical University Arena, rallying late in the third period just to keep the night alive. Brendan Furry and Ethan Gauthier handled the scoring, while Lucas Mercuri and Dylan Duke each set up two goals as Syracuse found a way to make a tight game out of it.
Still, the lingering issue was the same one that has a way of deciding these margin-of-error nights, because Rochester needed only a brief opening in extra time to end it. Syracuse got the point and the comeback effort it wanted, but the Crunch will have to live with a game that was there for the taking before the overtime finish tipped it the other way. [Read more 🡒]
Lightning Exposed A Bigger Problem In This Loss To Colorado
The Lightnings 6-3 loss to Colorado was more than just another blemish on the schedule. Tampa Bay gave up an early goal and spent most of the night chasing the game, even as Jake Guentzel provided a spark with two goals. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 18 shots, but the Avalanche kept finding ways through, with Nathan MacKinnon driving the pace and forcing the Lightning into a reactive game for much of the night.
What made the defeat sting was how little margin Tampa Bay had once Colorado settled in. The Avalanches top line dictated the flow, and the Lightning never really solved it, leaving the larger issue front and center as the game wore on. For a club that expects more from its defensive structure, the concern is not just the result itself but how quickly the cracks showed once Colorado turned up the pressure. [Read more 🡒]