Home ice has been kind to Tampa Bay

As the Tampa Bay Lightning return home for a quick, two-game homestand, the team hopes to get back to playing the right way and build some momentum before they hit the road for a season-long, five-game road trip that begins with a game against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.
That process all starts with a Tuesday night clash against the Columbus Blue Jackets, a team Tampa Bay has defeated two times in as many contests this season. The Bolts will have a chance to sweep the season series on home ice, where the team has won seven consecutive games and compiled a 15-4-1 record through 20 contests this season.

"Being at home doesn't guarantee that we're going to win," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "I think, hopefully, we'll turn around what I thought was kind of a disappointing road trip in the last two games we played.
"It's home, but we need to play better than we did those last two games, and I think we will."
Following a disappointing result in Winnipeg on Friday night, the Bolts went through an up-tempo practice on Monday and hope the results will carry over into Tuesday's contest. The team knows they need to play better, and it sounds like the players and coaching staff are all on the same page.
"Yesterday and the day before, I think we all understood where I stood and where our coaching staff stood," said Cooper. "The players were aware of it. Again, it's 82 games. You can't expect them to play perfect hockey for 82 games, but what happened, kind of as that trip went on, the guys know it was unacceptable. I believe we're all on the same page now.
"We've got to look ourselves here in the mirror and concentrate on our game."
Cooper and the team have talked about the importance of "munching" points at AMALIE Arena and taking care of home ice. Some of those extra points can help the slip-ups on the road hurt a little less, at least in the standings.

With a big road trip coming up, the Lightning need to continue collecting those points at home, but also generate some positive momentum before the five-game trip. Tampa Bay had two days off on Saturday and Sunday to rest up before returning to the ice on Monday ahead of tonight's contest.
"I do believe that the two days probably rested the mind, a little bit of the body, but the guys, they understand where we're coming from and, like I said, this has been a great self-correcting team over the years," Cooper said. "So, I'm not worried about this group whatsoever, but we can't pass up points that I felt we passed up on that road trip.
"When we're staring at a five-game road trip coming up here, it's pivotal that we get our game in order in these next two at home."
Over the course of the seven-game win streak at AMALIE Arena, the Bolts have allowed two or less goals in six of the contests, with the one outlier coming in a 5-3 win over Arizona. Getting back to that kind of defensive mindset, along with sustaining some offensive zone time, will be focal points heading into tonight's game against Columbus.
"In the offensive zone, we're a little bit too one-and-done," said Cooper. "I don't think we're creating enough, sustaining enough, putting teams on their heels enough.
"But in the end, it comes down to - what are we giving up? You start giving up these odd-man rushes the way we are. You start taking the penalties the way we have. You're just not giving yourself any chance to win the game.
"For that, those are choices guys are making, so we have to straighten that out, which will help our game."
The Lightning will get some reinforcements on the back end on Tuesday night with Victor Hedman set to slot back into the lineup after returning home to Tampa last Friday for the birth of his second child. After taking line rushes on a pair with Hedman, Zach Bogosian looks like he's set to make his return to game action as well.
One Tampa Bay skater that fans will not see tonight is Rudolfs Balcers, who is getting closer to his return every day after shedding the red, no-contact jersey and joining the Bolts as a regular participant in the past few practices.
Balcers will miss his 19th-straight game tonight after he suffered an upper-body injury November 25 against the St. Louis Blues. Though his action was limited, Balcers scored one goal in essentially just two contests with the Lightning. He was injured on his first shift of the game against St. Louis.
"I would anticipate him ready to play games, for sure, within the next week," Cooper said on Monday. "Good to see him back.
"Love the kid. You know, you get to spend a lot of time with them when they're not available to play and you feel for these guys, because there's a lot of leg days and a lot of cardio days when you have those upper-body injuries. He worked his tail off, so he deserves to get in at some point here. We'll just see when, is the big thing."

Balcers has been engaging in battle drills for the first time since his injury and says he's felt good on the ice. He's looking forward to his return after some long days of training and conditioning over the past month and a half.
"It'll be nice to just start playing hockey again," said Balcers. "The staff's been doing a pretty good job, so I feel pretty good."
Suffering an injury just two weeks after being claimed off waivers by Tampa Bay surely wasn't easy for Balcers. Moving to a new city in the middle of the season is hard enough, but getting to know your teammates and trying to make friends becomes even more difficult when you aren't skating with the team on a daily basis.
But as we've often heard from trade deadline acquisitions over the years, the team did a great job welcoming Balcers and making him feel comfortable within the group.
"Yeah, it sucks," Balcers said. "I was with the team pretty much for two weeks and then I get hurt. Obviously, you're at the rink with the guys, but you're not really with them because you're not in the locker room and you're not practicing on the ice with them.
"It kind of sucked, but the guys are really nice here. Everyone's really friendly. I feel like I'm pretty much in the group now, so it was fun to be out there with them today."