At the Rink: Blackhawks at Lightning

TAMPA -- Something has to give when the Chicago Blackhawks play the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; TVAS, CSN-CH, SUN), a rematch of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final won by the Blackhawks in six games.

Chicago (32-13-4) has won a Blackhawks record 12 straight games. Tampa Bay (25-17-4) has won six straight to move into second place in the Atlantic Division.

"When you win 12 games in a row it's not going to be the same guys every night stepping up and making a difference," Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane said. "Guys from the first line to the fourth line to our backup goaltender to our sixth defenseman, they've all been key to this run. And it's fun to have it that way. It's fun to have different guys stepping up and making a difference."

Kane said the Lightning is performing much closer to the team he faced in the Cup Final.

"Two dangerous teams, they are probably playing the best they have all year," Kane said. "Not too many changes over there and we know what they are capable of. It's going to be a tough game for us."

Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said the Blackhawks are a complete team with no noticeable weaknesses in their lineup.

"[They are] very high-skilled up front with a great defensive core and a great goalie," Hedman said. "They are obviously red hot right now. We know it's a big challenge and we like those types of games. These are the games as a hockey player you want to play."

Forward Brian Boyle said the Lightning must play a full 60 minutes and cannot have the third-period issues that plagued them Tuesday, when they gave up a two-goal lead in the third period to the Edmonton Oilers before rallying behind Boyle's game-winning goal for a 6-4 win.

"[The Blackhawks] can attack you in many ways, we can't afford to have any mental lapses," Boyle said. "There's a lot of buzz about this game and sometimes in the middle of January there's not always huge games with a lot of buzz. This is exciting for us."

Blackhawks forward Richard Panik will not be in the lineup after he overslept and missed the morning skate, according to coach Joel Quenneville.

Here are the projected lineups:

BLACKHAWKS

Andrew Shaw – Jonathan Toews – Marian Hossa

Artemi Panarin – Artem Anisimov – Patrick Kane

Andrew Desjardins – Phillip Danault – Teuvo Teravainen

Brandon Mashinter – Dennis Rasmussen

Duncan Keith – Niklas Hjalmarsson

Erik Gustafsson – Brent Seabrook

Trevor Van Riemsdyk – Michal Rozsival

Rob Scuderi

Corey Crawford

Scott Darling

Scratched: Jiri Sekac, Richard Panik

Injured: Marcus Kruger (fractured left wrist)

LIGHTNING

Ondrej Palat - Vladislav Namestnikov - Steven Stamkos

Alex Killorn - Tyler Johnson - Nikita Kucherov

J.T. Brown - Valtteri Filppula - Ryan Callahan

Cedric Paquette - Brian Boyle - Erik Condra

Victor Hedman - Anton Stralman

Jason Garrison - Braydon Coburn

Andrej Sustr - Nikita Nesterov

Ben Bishop

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Injured: Joel Vermin (hand)

Scratched: Jonathan Marchessault, Matthew Carle

Status report: The Blackhawks acquired Sekac from the Anaheim Ducks for Ryan Garbutt on Thursday, but Quenneville said Sekac will not arrive in time for the game, so he will dress seven defensemen. … Crawford is going for his 10th straight win. … Bishop starts for the Lightning and is after his 19th win of the season.

Who's hot: Killorn had a goal and two assists Tuesday against Edmonton. ... Kane has five goals and three assists in his past three games.