The Lightning are taking a pretty clean home start and putting it to the real test now.
Tampa Bay has opened the season 5-0 at Benchmark International Arena, but that comfort leaves the building this week as the team heads out on a three-game Western trip that starts Tuesday night in Vegas. Puck drop is set for 10:30 p.m. ET, and the schedule only gets tougher from there with games in Colorado on Friday and Utah on Saturday.
That opening matchup is no soft landing. Vegas comes in as the defending Western Conference champions and leads its division at 10-8-2. Colorado and Utah are also sitting among the top three in their divisions, giving the Lightning a stretch that should tell them plenty about where they stand.
“We’ve played eight games, five have been at home, and we’ve taken care of business here, which has been great,” said Jon Cooper. “We’re 1-2 on the road, and now we’re going out west, multiple time zone changes against - I don’t know what the combined record of the three teams is, but I bet it’s something like a lot of wins and not very many losses.
These three teams are… you could put them in a grouping of the class of the west. This is a legitimate early season test for us.”
Special teams are front and center on this trip, and Tampa Bay has work to do there. The Lightning enter Tuesday ranked 31st in the NHL on the power play at 10.7%. Cooper shuffled the first unit on Saturday, bringing in defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous, and the move paid off immediately when Tampa Bay scored on its only chance.
“We were 32nd in the league,” said Cooper. “It was time to try some new things, we didn't get many chances, but I thought they made the best of it.”
The penalty kill is going to get a workout too. Tampa Bay sits 22nd in the league there, while Vegas is sixth on the power play at 27.8%. Utah brings even more pressure, leading the NHL with a 35.3% success rate on the man advantage.
“I think everyone knows who’s on the team, and Utah's been incredible to see so far, certainly a team that caught everyone's eye last year too,” said defenseman John Carlson. “That's a bear of a road trip and like I said, I think you kind of stay singularly focused on what you can do.”
Tampa Bay also enters the trip with a roster setup that gives Cooper some options. The Lightning are carrying 23 players and have been rolling with an 11-forward, seven-defenseman alignment, a setup that has helped spread the ice time around on the blue line. Cooper didn’t put a timer on how long that look will last, so it could keep showing up during the trip.
“Our team has depth. I think that’s one of the positives about our group, among a bunch of them,” said Cooper.
“To be able to throw lines out, you shouldn't have to worry if the puck's going to end up in your net, that’s been a good sign for us and this group so far. But again, you have much less control of what's going on when you go on the road, and it'll be tests for our guys.”
Goalie Dennis Hildeby is expected to handle one of the back-to-back starts in Colorado or Utah. He’s coming in off two straight home wins, and Cooper said the Lightning are getting what they need from both of their goaltenders.
“He’s been good,” said Cooper. “He gives us a chance to win.
That's what you're asking from your goalies, both of them. That's what they've done every night.”
There’s also a milestone hanging in the background. Nikita Kucherov, who scored twice Saturday, is four points away from passing Steven Stamkos for the Lightning’s all-time scoring record. Stamkos, now in his third season with the Nashville Predators, has 1,137 points in 1,082 games, while Kucherov is at 1,134 points in 887 games.
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