Tampa Bay Lightning Look To End Slump Against Edmonton Oilers
The Tampa Bay Lightning fell at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks for the second time this season and will look to get back on track against the Edmonton Oilers tonight.
After dropping a 4-2 decision to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning lost the season series to one of the league’s worst teams and now the Lightning finds itself in a precarious position two months into the regular season. A win against the Edmonton Oilers might help mend things, but even that’s not a strong possibility.
The Lightning currently sits three points out of third place in the Atlantic Division, and the team has been reeling the past couple of weeks. The Lightning is 2-7-1 in its last 10 games, is under .500 on the road and hasn’t won back-to-back games in over a month. Many fans have expressed that it’s time to hit the panic button and shake-up the roster and even the coaching staff, in some cases.
Though I don’t think Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper will be given the boot anytime soon, I wouldn’t expect him to be given that long of a leash if the Lightning continues to trend in the wrong direction. The 2016-17 regular is no longer “young,” and we’re headed into deeper waters in the coming weeks.
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With all of the injuries that have plagued this team, it’s understandable why the current slump is occurring, but the Lightning struggled a bit even with it’s best players in the lineup.
I’m not saying Cooper needs to reinvent the wheel here, but if the Bolts intend to make the playoffs this season, something needs to be reworked or changed soon.
The tough task of getting back on track and into the win column doesn’t get any easier, as the Tampa Bay Lightning is set to face an up-and-coming Edmonton Oilers team that has made some waves this season and got off to a fairly solid start. Edmonton sits in
Edmonton sits in third place in the Pacific Division and is four points behind the first-place San Jose Sharks.
This leap in the standings and in improvement shouldn’t come as a surprise since the Oilers boasts a talented, young crop of forwards, including center Connor McDavid, the number one overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, who leads the league in points (39) and assists (27) in 32 games played and is evolving into one of the NHL’s best players.
In addition, forward Leon Draisaitl, the third overall pick in 2014, has 26 points on the season and is second on the team in that category behind McDavid. Wingers Jordan Eberle and recent free agent addition Milan Lucic both have over 20 points thus far. The team as a whole is scoring at a top-10 rate, as the Oilers are seventh in goals for per game (2.91) and fourth in total goals with 93.
Edmonton is 13th in the NHL in goals against per game (2.69) and 16th in shots against per game (30.2). As for the goaltending, Cam Talbot is ninth in the NHL with 14 wins and has a 14-10-0 record, a .916 save percentage and a 2.57 goals against average in 28 starts.
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On the special teams and possession side of things, the Oilers has struggled at home on the Power Play (12.0 percent), but has killed off 83.3 percent of its penalties on home ice, which is 12th in the league. Edmonton is 11th in the NHL with a 51.55 SAT (shot attempts) percentage and 10th in the league with a 51.59 USAT (unblocked shot attempts) percentage, both of which are above average.
The Oilers have also scored the most first-period goals in the league with 31, while the Lightning has 21 in the opening frame. Edmonton has also given up the fourth most goals in the first period, so maybe the Lightning can take advantage.
The Edmonton Oilers also leads the all-time series between the two teams with an 18-13-2 record overall, including an 11-5-0 record against Tampa Bay at home. In those 16 home games against the Lightning in Edmonton, the Oilers has a 2.90 goals for per game average and a 2.40 goals against per game average.
As for the Lightning, the team has fallen to the injury bug, and that has certainly had a large impact on the team’s performance in the rising Eastern Conference this season. Additionally, Tampa Bay still has one of the league’s best Power Plays (22.7 percent, which is in the top-5), but the Penalty Kill has dropped off quite a bit in recent times (78.8 percent, which is in the bottom-10).
The Tampa Bay Lightning is without three key players in Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat and Ryan Callahan, and those who were called up from the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL have done well, but it may not be enough to help overcome this bad slump.
Head-to-head, I’d give the Oilers a slight advantage, even though the team has just been average on home ice. But, with the Lightning in a bit of a rut and not showing many clear signs of getting back on track, the Oilers could take advantage and squeak out a 3-2, 4-3 or a 5-4 type of win tonight.
The Tampa Bay Lightning has been inconsistent all season, and wins have come at a premium, especially as of late. A win could be the start of a new winning streak, but those words have been thrown around all too much to have any meaning. The Lightning hasn’t gotten it done and it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, though there are plenty of games left to go. Tune in at 10 p.m. ET for puck drop in Edmonton. Go Bolts!
TV/Radio/Live Stream Information
Game 32 match-up: Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Edmonton Oilers
Venue: Rogers Place
Time: 10 p.m. ET
Watch/Listen: FS-Sun, 970 WFLA, TBL Power Play, Fox Sports Go
Opponent FanSided site: Oil On Whyte
Projected Lines (subject to change)
Tampa Bay Lightning
Forwards
Cory Conacher – Tyler Johnson – Erik Condra
Brian Boyle – Valtteri Filppula – Jonathan Drouin
Alex Killorn – Brayden Point – Vladislav Namestnikov
J.T. Brown – Cedric Paquette – Joel Vermin
Defensemen
Victor Hedman – Anton Stralman
Slater Koekkoek – Braydon Coburn
Goaltenders
Edmonton Oilers
Forwards
Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Drake Caggiula
Patrick Maroon – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle
Benoit Pouliot* – Leon Draisaitl – Jesse Puljujarvi*
Tyler Pitlick – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian
Defensemen
Brandon Davidson – Matthew Benning – Eric Gryba
Goaltenders
*Both Pouliot and Puljujarvi will be out of the lineup tonight. Forward Taylor Beck is projected to be in the game tonight, but it was not clear on which line.
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