TAMPA - The Tampa Bay Lightning will look for recent history to repeat itself when they meet the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
The Lightning will put their 2-0-0 home record on the line against a Flyers team that had gotten off to a slow start but now seem to have their game together. Philadelphia (2-3-0) has won two games in a row, including a 7-1 thrashing Saturday night of the Florida Panthers.
On Friday night, the Lightning faced the then-undefeated Ottawa Senators in the second of back-to-back games after Ottawa had skated against the Florida Panthers the day prior. In that contest, Tampa Bay fired three third-period goals for a comeback win.
The Flyers arrive in Tampa in the exact same situation and the Lightning are hoping for the exact same result.
“We have to take advantage of them early,” Steven Stamkos said. “Maybe they will be a little tired.”
Lightning coach Guy Boucher is not counting on that, however.
“I don’t think (playing back-to-back games) will be an issue for them,” Boucher said. “They won 7-1 last night and rested their top guys in the third period so they are coming in charging.”
The Flyers had an optional morning skate with only a few players on the ice.
Here are the projected lineups for both teams:
FLYERS
Wayne Simmonds - Claude Giroux - Matt Read
Danny Briere - Sean Couturier - Jakub Voracek
Mike Knuble - Brayden Schenn - Ruslan Fedotenko
Tye McGinn - Maxime Talbot - Scott Laughton
Nicklas Grossmann - Braydon Coburn
LIGHTNING
Ryan Malone – Steven Stamkos – Martin St. Louis
Cory Conacher – Vincent Lecavalier – Teddy Purcell
Adam Hall – Nate Thompson – B.J. Crombeen
Tom Pyatt – Benoit Pouliot – Dana Tyrell
Scratched: Brandan Mikkelson, Pierre-Cedric Labrie, Marc-Andre Bergeron