Lines from Sunday's game (subject to change)
Forwards
Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Tyler Johnson
Alex Killorn - Anthony Cirelli - Steven Stamkos
Barclay Goodrow - Yanni Gourde - Blake Coleman
Pat Maroon - Ross Colton - Mathieu Joseph
Defensemen
Victor Hedman - Cal Foote
Ryan McDonagh - Luke Schenn
Mikhail Sergachev - Ben Thomas
Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
Christopher Gibson
Tuesday's Matchup
The Lightning and the Blue Jackets are playing their fifth of eight meetings this season and the third of four at Nationwide Arena...Tampa Bay and Columbus will play four times in a 10-day span, having already played two games at AMALIE Arena March 30 and April 1...The Lightning are 2-2-0 against Columbus this season, having split a pair of two-game sets...The Bolts own a .500 point percentage this season versus Columbus, tied for their lowest against any division opponent along with Florida (2-2-0, .500)...Tampa Bay was victorious 3-2 in its last meeting with Columbus Apr. 1 at AMALIE Arena, Ross Colton (3rd - 14:49) and Brayden Point (3rd - 15:54) scoring 65 seconds apart late in the third period in a come-from-behind Lightning win...Andrei Vasilevskiy is 2-1-0/.911/2.64 in three starts this season vs. Columbus, including wins in his last two starts...Brayden Point paces the Bolts for goals (3-1--4 pts.) this season vs. Columbus and is tied for the Lightning scoring lead against the Blue Jackets with Victor Hedman (1-3--4 pts.).
Thursday's Storylines
The Lightning begin a four-game road trip tonight...The Bolts are looking to end a two-game road losing skid...Tampa Bay (54 pts.) dropped to second place in the Central Division standings following Sunday's defeat, two points behind Florida (56 pts.)...The Lightning are tied for the NHL lead for wins (26, tied w/ FLA), regulation wins (22, tied w/ COL) and ROW (25, tied w/ FLA and COL)...The Bolts have scored only one power-play goal in the last six contests (1-for-14 overall) but owns the third-best power-play percentage in the NHL (26.2%) behind only CAR (29.1%) and EDM (26.5%) and the top road power-play in the League (31.2%).
Injuries
2020-21 Reg. Season Man Games Lost: 96
Erik Cernak (Lower-body injury March 23; Day-to-day) 6 Games
Nikita Kucherov (Hip surgery Dec. 29; Out) 38 Games
Jan Rutta (Lower-body injury March 30; Week-to-week) 3 Games
The Road Ahead
Thursday, April 8 at Columbus Blue Jackets
Saturday, April 10 at Nashville Predators
Tuesday, April 13 at Nashville Predators
Want more info and live score updates? Click here to subscribe to the 2020-21 Game Day Guide email list.
