Pens-Bolts on NHL Network highlights busy Thursday

The Pittsburgh Penguins hope the bad memories from their last meeting with the Tampa Bay Lightning don't carry over to this season.

The Penguins visit Tampa Bay in one of 11 games on Thursday's NHL schedule. It's the teams' first meeting since Game 7 of their opening-round playoff series last April, when the Lightning completed a comeback from a 3-1 series deficit with a 1-0 victory in Game 7.

The NHL Network will air the game in the United States, beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Thursday's action begins a half-hour earlier with three games. The Boston Bruins go for their seventh consecutive victory when they host the last-place Columbus Blue Jackets, who lost 4-2 at home to Minnesota on Tuesday. Montreal, coming off Wednesday's 4-0 home win against Carolina, goes to Long Island, where the New York Islanders fell to 1-7-3 in their last 11 games with a 4-2 loss to the Rangers on Tuesday. That game can be seen in Canada on RDS.

Also, Phoenix will try for its third win in as many games on its current road trip with a stop in Philadelphia -- where the opposition goaltender is likely to be former Coyote Ilya Bryzgalov.

Three more games begin at 8 p.m. ET. Florida tries to build off Tuesday's 6-0 win at Dallas when it visits St. Louis, where the Blues edged Detroit 2-1, also on Tuesday. Toronto, a 3-2 shootout loser to Phoenix on Tuesday, visits Nashville, which is coming off a 3-1 win against Washington. Minnesota is back home for a game against Colorado, a 6-3 loser at Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

At 8:30, Washington visits Winnipeg, a 5-2 winner against Tampa Bay on Monday. An hour later, Edmonton returns home after a six-game trip that ended with a 6-3 loss at Chicago on Sunday to host Ottawa, which started a swing through Western Canada by beating Calgary 3-1 on Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks get together at the Honda Center at 10 p.m. ET for the second half of their home-and-home series. A half-hour later, Detroit continues its road trip in San Jose, where the Sharks have been off since Saturday's 3-0 home loss to Phoenix.