Notebook: Lightning depart on longest road trip of the season

The Tampa Bay Lightning left Monday for Dallas to begin their longest road trip of the season: six games in 10 days starting with the finale of a two-game series against the Stars at American Airlines Center.
With an already condensed schedule further compacted by the postponement of a handful of games earlier this season, the Lightning knew those games would have to be made up at some point and were prepared for the challenge this unique year presents.
But still, preparing for and actually playing a large number of games in a relatively short span are two different things, and the Lightning will get an idea just how effective their planning was starting with this trip.

Tampa Bay is one of 11 NHL teams yet to play 20 games this season. Dallas, the Bolts' opponent Tuesday, has only played 16 contests, the fewest in the League, because of a COVID-19 outbreak during its training camp and inclement weather that forced more games to be postponed.
So while the Lightning are in a tough situation, some teams have it even worse.
"I think that's a lot of emphasis that we put in the gym before the season starts. In the offseason, you've got to train your body to be ready for stretches like this, especially during these circumstances," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. "We knew it was going to be a cramped schedule. It's a lot mentally too. It's definitely tough to play this many games and recharge, but we've done a good job so far."
While the Lightning will be on the road for 11 days, they won't have to fly to a new city and switch hotels after every contest like they would in a normal season. Because of the league's need to limit travel due to Covid, teams are playing two- and three-game sets against one another, meaning the road team can stay in the same city for a few days before packing up and heading off to the next city. So, while the number of rest days between games has been reduced, so too has the amount of travel teams are facing.
"That's definitely a positive," Tampa Bay forward Barclay Goodrow said. "It's nice to be able to get to bed at a reasonable hour when you're on the road because you don't need to go to the next city, you're just staying in the same hotel. There are positives to the way the schedule's been laid out, so it does help provide for better recovery, especially in those back-to-back situations."
Finding time to rest and recover will be the key to a successful trip, Goodrow said.
"When you're playing so much hockey in a short amount of time, rest is kind of a rarity, so when you get the chance to have an off day, even if you're not allowed to leave the hotel, you're not really doing much anyway," he said. "You're trying to get as much rest as possible. With just so much hockey being played, we like to take advantage of those rest days as much as we can."
Tampa Bay will spend 11 days on the road between three cities - Dallas, Chicago and Detroit - which would be considered a long road trip, even in a normal season.
But for a veteran Lightning team adept at handling the quirks of a NHL season, this is just another opportunity to have a unique experience with teammates and staff.
"I'm not too worried about it, Hedman said. "We're kind of used to it after being 65 days in the bubble, so 11 days feels like a short one."
PENALTY KILL RANKS AMONG THE BEST: After giving up a power-play goal in each of the first three games of the season, Tampa Bay's penalty kill has emerged as one of the best units in the NHL.
The PK has successfully killed 14-consecutive opponent power plays over the last four games, including 11 straight in the last two games.
The Lightning have surrendered just one power-play goal in the last seven games.
Tampa Bay's penalty kill has risen through the ranks of the NHL as a result and currently sits in second place with an 88.1 percent success rate. Only Colorado (89.5%) has a better ranked PK.
"I think you've got to be a smart hockey player to be on the PK," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "You need to have courage. You've got to be relentless and you have to have the ability to win puck battles. But at the end of the day, you need to block some shots, and the guys that do that usually is why penalty kills have some success."
The Lightning penalty kill remained consistent despite losing Anthony Cirelli for six games when he was sidelined with an upper-body injury from February 13-25, the Bolts allowing just one power-play goal over that stretch. Cirelli ranks second among Lightning forwards for average shorthanded time on ice (2:48) and fourth overall on the Bolts.
Now that Cirelli's back in the lineup, the penalty kill should become even more of a strength than it already has been for the Lightning.
"There's no question, there is chemistry with where guys rotate, where guys are going to be, knowing tendencies of our guys and what they do well," Cooper said about having consistent forward duos on the penalty kill. "So there's no doubt, you need to have, the more these guys get to know and play with each other, the better it's been for us. We started this a couple years ago with trying to pair guys up and let them have a feel for each other and it's worked well for us."
ROOKIES STICKING AROUND: With Anthony Cirelli returning from injury, the Lightning currently have three extra forwards on the roster between the main players and the taxi squad.
Gemel Smith has seen action on the fourth line since Mitchell Stephens suffered a significant injury and is out for an extended period. Alex Barré-Boulet and Ross Colton were brought up from AHL Syracuse and each made their NHL debut while Cirelli was out, both having plenty of success - Colton became one of nine Lightning players all-time to score a goal in his first NHL game - and proving they could compete at this level.
Now that Cirelli's back, the thought was the two rookies would return to Syracuse where they could get regular playing time as their development continues.
But Jon Cooper indicated they might be sticking around a little bit longer.
"We'll see what goes on," he said. "Like, we've got so many games coming up. Right now, our plan is, these guys both showed well in the games, so now we know that they most definitely can slide into the lineup. It's just a matter of when…With all these games coming up, if you can get them in some more, we're definitely going to."