Nuts & Bolts: Tied at the top with the Panthers

The Lightning open a critical six-game homestand on Thursday night against the Panthers, with both teams entering play tied with Carolina atop the Central Division standings.
When:Thursday, April 15 - 7:00 p.m. ET
Where:Amalie Arena - Tampa, FL
TV coverage: Bally Sports Florida (check local listings)
Radio coverage: 970 WFLA-AM,
Lightning Power Play
Stream info:
FOX Sports GO
,
NHL.TV

Lines from Tuesday's game (subject to change)
Forwards
Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Anthony Cirelli
Barclay Goodrow - Yanni Gourde - Blake Coleman
Alex Killorn - Tyler Johnson - Mathieu Joseph
Patrick Maroon - Ross Colton - Mitchell Stephens
Defensemen
Victor Hedman - David Savard
Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev - Luke Schenn
Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
Thursday's Matchup
The Lightning and the Panthers are playing their fifth of eight meetings this season and the third of four at AMALIE Arena...Tampa Bay is 2-2-0 against Florida...The Lightning earned a 5-3 victory in the last meeting March 21 at AMALIE Arena, Tyler Johnson breaking a 3-3 tie with a power-play goal at 10:56 of the third period and Brayden Point adding an empty-netter with 15 seconds to go...Ondrej Palat has recorded a point in all four games with Florida this season and is on a five-game point streak versus the Panthers going back to last season (1-6--7 pts.); Palat leads the Lightning for scoring this season versus Florida...Tyler Johnson is on a three-game goal streak versus Florida and leads the Lightning for goals this season against the Panthers (4 goals total)...Tampa Bay has won nine of its last 10 home meetings agianst Florida...The Lightning have played more games all-time against Florida (142) than they have any other NHL opponent.
Thursday's Storylines
Tampa Bay begins a season-long six-game homestand tonight...Nine of the Lightning's 14 remaining regular season games will be played at AMALIE Arena...The Bolts are allowing 26.5 shots per game at home this season, third fewest in the NHL behind DAL (24.8) and COL (25.3)...Tampa Bay enters tonight's contest tied for first place in the Central Division on points (58) with Carolina and Florida (the Hurricanes own the tiebreaker having played one fewer game than the Lightning and two fewer games than the Panthers).
Injuries
2020-21 Reg. Season Man Games Lost: 107
Nikita Kucherov (Hip Surgery Dec. 29; Out) 42 Games
Jan Rutta (Lower-body injury March 30; Week-to-week) 7 Games
Steven Stamkos (Day-to-day) 2 Games
The Road Ahead
Saturday, April 17 vs. Florida Panthers
Monday, April 19 vs. Carolina Hurricanes
Tuesday, April 20 vs. Carolina Hurricanes
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