TAMPA -- Four games ago, the Tampa Bay Lightning headed out on the road, seeking a measure of consistency. Monday night they return to the St. Pete Times Forum having found some, but not the sort they had hoped for.

The Lightning (12-15-2) will face the New Jersey Devils (14-13-1), having dropped six of their last seven games while being outscored by their opponents, 27-13 -- certainly not the sort of reliability coach Guy Boucher was hoping to find.

"Consistency comes from habits, and there are a lot of things that are not habits for us this year," Boucher said.
"Turnovers have killed us and we don't have a powerhouse offense. We've got three big names, but no secondary scoring. When we try to 'run and gun' it, we don't look consistent like we're supposed to.

"We don't have consistency because we don't have the same attention to details and habits. The chemistry is different."

Monday will be the second of four meetings this season between these two clubs; New Jersey took the first matchup 4-2 on Nov. 19, also in Tampa. In that contest, Ryan Carter and David Clarkson led the Devils with a goal and an assist apiece.

Martin St. Louis scored for Tampa Bay, but he won't be on the ice Monday night as he continues his recovery from facial fractures suffered when he was hit in the face with a puck during the morning skate Dec. 8 in New York.

"It's unrealistic right now to think St. Louis can return before Christmas," Boucher said. "Not having him puts a gigantic hole in our lineup."

That gigantic hole may be viewed most clearly on the power play, where the Lightning are sporting a 2-for-23 success rate.

"We've got less movement on the power play now," Boucher said. "Marty (St. Louis) created things that weren't planned. You can't expect to do the same things without Marty."

Despite St. Louis' absence, the Devils are not taking anything for granted.

"The Lightning are still a really good team without him," Zach Parise said. "But he's probably their best overall player. When you lose that, other players will elevate their game, so I'm sure they'll be tough."

For Tampa Bay, things have been tough in a different sort of way.

"It's a very trying year with lots of adversity," Boucher said. "And that’s good. That's how you build -- through adversity."

Here's how the lineups could look tonight when the Tampa Bay Lightning host the New Jersey Devils at the St. Pete Times Forum:

DEVILS
Petr Sykora - Patrik Elias - David Clarkson
Zach Parise - Adam Henrique - Ilya Kovalchuk
Dainius Zubrus - Ryan Carter - Nick Palmieri
Eric Boulton - Tim Sestito - Mattias Tedenby

Henrik Tallinder - Adam Larsson
Alexander Urbom - Mark Fayne
Bryce Salvador - Matt Taormina

Johan Hedberg
Martin Brodeur

LIGHTNING
Ryan Malone - Vincent Lecavalier - Teddy Purcell
Steve Downie - Steven Stamkos - Ryan Shannon
Tom Pyatt - Dominic Moore - Blair Jones
Adam Hall - Nate Thompson - Dana Tyrell

Eric Brewer - Victor Hedman
Matt Gilroy - Marc-Andre Bergeron
Brett Clark - Pavel Kubina

Dwayne Roloson
Mathieu Garon

   

TAMPA - Should old acquaintances be forgotten?

That’s a good question, and especially appropriate as the Tampa Bay Lightning play host to the New York Rangers on Saturday night at the St. Pete Times Forum, because New York (14-5-3) features three old acquaintances that were here, and were big parts of the Lightning team that won the Stanley Cup in 2004.

Brad Richards, currently leading the Rangers in scoring with 20 points, was the hero of the Tampa Bay playoff run in 2004, and collected a Conn Smythe Trophy as the Playoff MVP; Ruslan Fedotenko scored both Lightning goals in their 2-1 Cup-clinching Game 7 win against Calgary; and John Tortorella, the coach of the Rangers, guided Tampa Bay to 106 points and won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top coach.

But don’t expect fond memories to slow down a Rangers team that is sitting in second place in the Atlantic Division, just three points behind Pittsburgh.

“I don’t want to say that returning to Tampa is just another stop because that would be disrespectful to an organization and place that I worked at for eight years,” Tortorella said, “But I’m not here warm and fuzzy; we’re here to win.”

For the Lightning (11-11-2), returning after a two-game road trip in which they dropped both games, seeing their home ice again, where they have gone 7-3-0, is a welcome reprieve.

In an attempt to increase scoring against a Rangers squad that has allowed the fewest goals in the NHL (49), Lightning coach Guy Boucher scratched fourth-line defensive grinder Adam Hall for the first time this season and added Ryan Shannon to the line-up.

“The plan for today was to go after more offense.” Boucher said. “Adam Hall is playing great defensively; it’s just that we’ve been lacking secondary scoring. Not that Adam can’t score, but he’s not known to be an offensive player. The Rangers are beating everybody and seem unbeatable, and if we don’t score goals, we’re not going to beat these guys.”

Here are the projected lineups for both teams:

RANGERS

Artem Anisimov - Derek Stepan - Marian Gaborik
Ruslan Fedotenko - Brad Richards - Ryan Callahan
Carl Hagelin - Brian Boyle - John Mitchell
Sean Avery - Brandon Dubinsky - Brandon Prust

Ryan McDonagh - Dan Girardi
Michael Del Zotto - Michael Sauer
Jeff Woywitka - Steve Eminger

Henrik Lundqvist
Martin Biron

LIGHTNING

Martin St. Louis - Vincent Lecavalier - Brett Connolly
Ryan Malone - Steven Stamkos - Steve Downie
Tom Pyatt - Dominic Moore - Teddy Purcell
Dana Tyrell - Nate Thompson - Ryan Shannon

Eric Brewer - Victor Hedman
Marc-Andre Bergeron - Matt Gilroy
Brett Clark - Pavel Kubina

Dwayne Roloson
Mathieu Garon

Here are the projected lineups for the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning for their contest Saturday night at St. Pete Times Forum:

PANTHERS

Tomas Fleischmann - Stephen Weiss - Kris Versteeg
Sean Bergenheim - Mike Santorelli - Jack Skille
Marco Sturm - Tim Kennedy - Tomas Kopecky
Michal Repik - Shawn Matthias - Evgeni Dadonov

Brian Campbell - Jason Garrison
Ed Jovanovski - Erik Gudbranson
Mike Weaver - Dmitry Kulikov

Jacob Markstrom
Jose Theodore

LIGHTNING

Martin St. Louis - Vincent Lecavalier - Ryan Shannon
Ryan Malone - Steven Stamkos - Teddy Purcell
Tom Pyatt - Dominic Moore - Brett Connolly
Adam Hall - Nate Thompson - Dana Tyrell

Eric Brewer - Victor Hedman
Marc-Andre Bergeron - Matt Gilroy
Brett Clark - Pavel Kubina

Mathieu Garon 
Dwayne Roloson

Youth must be served, so the saying goes, but don’t tell that to the two wily veterans who will occupy the opposing nets Saturday night when the New Jersey Devils meet the Tampa Bay Lightning at St. Pete Times Forum.

For the visitors, there is future Hall of Fame member Martin Brodeur. The Lightning will send out Dwayne Roloson, who at 42 is the oldest active player in the NHL.

“Playing against Roloson makes me feel good,” the 39-year-old Brodeur said. “I’m not the oldest for a change. He’s a great goalie and anytime you face a great goalie you always want to play well. Dwayne and I have had our share of battles through the years.”

Roloson, coming off a 33-save 4-1 win Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins, was somewhat less philosophical.

“It doesn’t matter at all to me who is the other goalie,” Roloson said. “I don’t have to deal with him. Our players have to deal with him.”

Ryan Malone returns to the ice for the Lightning Saturday night, after missing four games with an upper-body injury.

The Lightning are currently riding a six-game home win streak and enter Saturday’s game with the NHL’s top-ranked home power play at 28.0 percent.

Here are the projected lineups:

DEVILS

Zach Parise - Adam Henrique - Ilya Kovalchuk
Petr Sykora - Patrik Elias - Dainius Zubrus
Nick Palmieri - Ryan Carter - David Clarkson
Mattias Tedenby - Brad Mills - Cam Janssen

Henrik Tallinder - Mark Frayne
Andy Greene - Adam Larsson
Bryce Salvador - Anton Volchenkov

Martin Brodeur
Johan Hedberg

LIGHTNING

Martin St. Louis - Vincent Lecavalier - Steve Downie
Ryan Malone - Steven Stamkos - Brett Connolly
Tom Pyatt - Dominic Moore - Ryan Shannon
Adam Hall - Nate Thompson - Teddy Purcell

Eric Brewer - Victor Hedman
Brett Clark - Marc-Andre Bergeron
Pavel Kubina - Matt Gilroy

Dwayne Roloson
Mathieu Garon

TAMPA, Fla -- Don't look for the Pittsburgh Penguins (11-4-3) to try any controversial stall tactics when they meet the 1-3-1 defense of the Tampa Bay Lightning (8-7-2) tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum. It's just not their style.

"We won't be doing that tonight," Penguins forward James Neal said. "You can't score just standing with the puck back behind the blue line."

And scoring is something that has been coming easily to the Eastern Conference-leading Penguins of late.

In their previous game, Tuesday night at home against the Colorado Avalanche, Pittsburgh ripped four goals in the third period to pull out a 6-3 come-from-behind win, and they've pumped 32 or more shots on goal in seven straight games.

That production has certainly gotten the attention of Lightning coach Guy Boucher, who will coach in his 100th regular season game tonight.

"What is there to watch out for against Pittsburgh?" Boucher said. "My answer is everything. How's that? They are just well built. Sidney Crosby isn't there and their lines are still scary. Their defensemen are extremely smart and difficult to forecheck. If you forecheck too hard, the puck is gone and their forwards are gone and you've forechecked for nothing. But if you never forecheck, you never get the puck in their zone. It's really difficult. I think they have the best defensive core in the NHL."

There will be a few interesting streaks on the line tonight. Among them, Neal is riding a season-high seven-game points streak and Marc-Andre Fleury takes the crease tonight with a personal eight-game unbeaten streak.

The Lightning will be putting a five-game home win streak on the line, their longest at the St. Pete Times Forum since October 2007.

One other streak to keep an eye on: Thursday night begins the sixth annual two-game Dads Trip. The Penguins have swept the fathers' trip each of the past two seasons.

One thing for certain, the dads and everyone else in attendance will likely see an up-tempo game.

"We're a fast-paced team," Jordan Staal said. "And we don't want to slow the game down at all."

Here are the projected lineups for when the Pittsburgh Penguins face off against the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum:

PENGUINS
Steve Sullivan - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Pascal Dupuis
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Tyler Kennedy
Craig Adams - Joe Vitale - Arron Asham

Brooks Orpik - Kris Letang
Paul Martin - Deryk Engelland
Matt Niskanen - Alexandre Picard

Marc-Andre Fleury
Brent Johnson

LIGHTNING
Martin St. Louis - Vincent Lecavalier - Brett Connolly
Steve Downie - Steven Stamkos - Teddy Purcell
Adam Hall - Dominic Moore - Ryan Shannon
Tom Pyatt - Nate Thompson - Blair Jones

Eric Brewer - Victor Hedman
Pavel Kubina - Marc-Andre Bergeron
Brett Clark - Matt Gilroy

Dwayne Roloson
Mathieu Garon

TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Lightning will put their four-game home win-streak on the line when they face the goal-happy Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night at the St. Pete Times Forum.

As if facing the potent Flyers were not enough, to complicate matters for the Lightning, Philadelphia arrives at a time when the Tampa Bay defense is under duress.

With Mattias Ohlund still sidelined because of arthroscopic surgeries on both knees and Victor Hedman out with an upper-body injury, facing any team would be a challenge for the depleted defensive corps, but hosting the Flyers will be a particularly difficult chore.

Philadelphia (8-4-2) comes into the contest with the NHL team lead for goals scored with 56 scores, nine goals ahead of second-place Washington. That’s an average of four goals per game.

If the task facing Tampa Bay (7-5-2) was not daunting enough, the Flyers are a rested team, coming off a three day breather after stomping the Columbus Blue Jackets 9-2 on Saturday night, and Chris Pronger is back tonight too.

Philadelphia has now tallied 28 goals in their last five games.

The Lightning will have plenty of high-scoring Flyers to keep in check, including Jaromir Jagr, who has lately re-discovered his legendary scoring touch and is riding a seven-game scoring streak during which he has collected 6 goals and 5 assists. Add in Claude Giroux, the second-leading scorer in the NHL with 19 points and a five-game scoring streak including 4 goals and 5 assists and you’ve got the basis for a tough night for the Lightning defenders.

Also expected to be sidelined for Tampa Bay is Ryan Malone, hampered by an upper-body injury.

“We’re playing the only guys we have healthy,” Lightning coach Guy Boucher said. Then, addressing the assembled media, he asked, “Any of you guys want to skate with us tonight?”

No hands were raised.

“We have to struggle right now,” Boucher said. “It’s not necessarily our “A” line-up but that’s the reality. Hopefully, we’ll battle through. They (Philadelphia) can make you look bad. It puts a lot of stress on our defensemen.”

Likely Lightning lineup

Martin St. Louis - Vincent Lecavalier - Brett Connolly
Steve Downie - Steven Stamkos - Teddy Purcell
Tom Pyatt - Dominic Moore - Ryan Shannon
Adam Hall - Nate Thompson - Blair Jones

Matt Gilroy - Eric Brewer
Pavel Kubina - Marc-Andre Bergeron
Brett Clark - Bruno Gervais

Dwayne Roloson
Mathieu Garon

Likely Philadelphia lineup

Scott Hartnell - Claude Giroux - Jaromir Jagr
James Van Riemsdyk - Danny Briere - Wayne Simmonds
Matt Bead - Maxime Talbot - Jakub Voracek
Harrison Zolnierczyk - Sean Couturier - Zac Rinaldo

Matt Carle - Matt Walker
Kimmo Timonen - Braydon Coburn
Andreas Lilja - Andrej Meszaros

Ilya Bryzgalov
Segei Bobrovsky

These are how the lineups could look when the Tampa Bay Lightning host the Chicago Blackhawks tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum:

LIGHTNING
Martin St. Louis - Vincent Lecavalier - Brett Connolly
Ryan Malone - Steven Stamkos - Steve Downie
Tom Pyatt - Dominic Moore - Teddy Purcell
Adam Hall - Nate Thompson - Ryan Shannon

Victor Hedman - Eric Brewer
Brett Clark - Pavel Kubina
Marc-Andre Bergeron - Matt Gilroy

Dwayne Roloson
Mathieu Garon

BLACKHAWKS
Patrick Sharp - Patrick Kane - Marian Hossa
Viktor Stalberg - Jonathan Toews - Andrew Brunette
Bryan Bickell - Dave Bolland - Michael Frolik
Daniel Carcillo - Marcus Kruger - Jamal Mayers

Niklas Hjalmarsson - Brent Seabrook
Sean O'Donnell - Nick Leddy
Sami Lepisto - Steve Montador

Ray Emery
Corey Crawford

Several streaks will be on the line Saturday night as the Winnipeg Jets make their first visit to Tampa, Fla., to face division foe Tampa Bay Lightning at the St. Pete Times Forum.

Jets forward Alexander Burmistrov is riding a six-game scoring streak (three goals, five assists during the streak), tied for the longest active streak in the NHL. Just behind him is Lightning forward Steven Stamkos, with a five-game streak (five goals, one assist). Saturday is the 12th Annual Tampa Bay Fights Cancer night, and the Lightning are undefeated the previous 11 nights.

The most noteworthy streak going into the game Saturday is the 11 consecutive wins Tampa Bay boasts against the Jets franchise (dating back to their time in Atlanta), the longest-active win streak by one team against another. Although the team won all six games against the franchise last season, coach Guy Boucher quickly dismissed any significance.

“I never look at that,” Boucher said. “Each year is different and to me, it’s not about a franchise, it’s about the players that are on the ice at that particular moment. If the Boston Red Sox would have thought only of the past, they never would have won a world’s championship. It’s all about today.”

Here are the expected lineups for both clubs:

TAMPA BAY

Martin St. Louis - Steven Stamkos - Brett Connolly
Ryan Malone - Vincent Lecavalier - Steve Downie
Ryan Shannon - Dominic Moore - Teddy Purcell
Adam Hall - Nate Thompson - Tom Pyatt

Victor Hedman - Eric Brewer
Brett Clark - Pavel Kubina
Marc-Andre Bergeron - Bruno Gervais

Dwayne Roloson
Mathieu Garon

WINNIPEG

Andrew Ladd - Bryan Little - Kyle Wellwood
Alexander Burmistrov - Nik Antropov - Evander Kane
Kenndal McArdle - Tim Stapleton - Blake Wheeler
Tanner Glass - Jim Slater - Chris Thorburn

Tobias Enstrom - Dustin Byfuglien
Mark Stuart - Zach Bogosian
Randy Jones - Johnny Oduya

Ondrej Pavelec
Peter Mannino