"We're obviously going to be excited to play a team of their caliber," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos told reporters following the Bolts' practice session Monday at the Ice Sports Forum. "Usually it brings out the best in other teams. It should bring out the best in both."
The Lightning have played a handful of benchmark games so far this season and have put together some of their best performances in such games. When the Bolts visited the Los Angeles Kings on November 9, the Kings were two points behind the Lightning for first place in the NHL and a point behind the Blues for the top spot in the Western Conference.
The Lightning scored four goals in the first period in a span of 2:02 in a dominant 5-2 win.
Saturday's game against Winnipeg brought one of the best teams in the League - and a team hungry for a win after losing two straight previously -- to AMALIE Arena.
The Lightning battled back from 1-0 and 3-2 deficits to win in overtime.
Tuesday's game in St. Louis represents another benchmark to see how the Bolts stack up against a team level with them in the standings.
"I think we have a few of those games coming up," Tampa Bay defenseman Jake Dotchin said. "Obviously that one with Winnipeg being a better team in the League, we wanted to see where we were against them and it was a good game. Going into St. Louis I think is the same type thing obviously on the road. Play a simple game to start, get our legs under us and let our game take over."
The Lightning already own a win over St. Louis this season. On October 14, the Bolts jumped out to a 2-0 lead behind a power-play goal from Tyler Johnson and a third-period marker from Nikita Kucherov. St. Louis got on the board with 3:23 to go, but Andrei Vasilevskiy would surrender no more, stopping 28-of-29 shots in the 2-1 win.
The Lightning are looking for their first sweep of a multi-game season series against St. Louis in franchise history.
"It's going to be a tight checking game," Stamkos said. "It's always a little different when you're playing a team in their home rink. We have to be better on the road. We've struggled a bit as of late coming off that tough trip, so we'll look to get our winning ways back."
During their last road trip, the Lightning lost three of four games in their worst stretch of the season to date. The NHL's best offensive team, the Lightning tallied just seven goals combined over the four games and got just one goal from a forward during 5-on-5 play on the trip.
Their offensive ineptitude necessitated a shifting of line combinations by head coach Jon Cooper, and the Lightning won four in a row since the change.
They'll look to keep that momentum going when they go back on the road, starting Tuesday in St. Louis.
"Fortunately, there's no back-to-backs on this trip, but it's one of those trips where we just keep going farther and farther away from home," Cooper said. "There's long plane trips involved here. We just have to keep this momentum and urgency we played with at home on the road. If we do that we'll be okay."
In St. Louis, the Lightning begin a stretch where 17 of their next 24 games come away from AMALIE Arena.
"We're really excited about hosting the All-Star Game," Cooper said. "It's going to be great for our sport. It's going to be great for our city. But it also pushes your team out on the road. So, I like that we've accumulated the points we have here at home. The 17 out of 24 on the road, it's tough. In a way, you're kind of looking forward to it to see if your team can answer the challenge. But when you're playing that many on the road, eventually you're going to have to make those home games up and we make those up in March. We don't want to be staring up at anybody in March. So, the onus is on us to win some games on the road and over the next two months, we're going to be seeing a lot of them."
COBURN UPDATE: Lightning defenseman Braydon Coburn did not practice with his teammates during Monday's session but will accompany the team on the road. Cooper said he hopes to have Coburn back at some point on the trip.
"He's progressing," Cooper said. "So, hopefully, the latter part of the trip we see him."
