"We expect a tough battle out there tonight," Bolts defenseman Victor Hedman said. "There's no question about that. It's desperation mode for both teams and you want to climb the standings and get into a playoff spot. I guess expect nothing else but the best game from both teams."
Despite the importance, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper cautioned against putting too much emphasis on tonight's game. The Lightning still have double digit games remaining in the regular season, including another matchup against the Maple Leafs in the third-from-last game of the season.
That meeting may have considerably more playoff implications than tonight's.
"I know there's like a lot of onus being put on this game, but there's still lots of hockey left," Cooper said. "A week and a half ago, we were a few points behind the Leafs. We didn't play them and now we're neck and neck with each other. Is this an extremely important game? Yes. Are we looking at this just because it's the Leafs and we're battling with each other? I don't think it matters. We might be singing a different tune when we're in Toronto, that first week of April, second week of April we're there, that's probably going to have a little different meaning. But this is just, we need these two."
The Lightning currently enjoy a one-point lead over the Maple Leafs, but Toronto owns a game in hand. The Maple Leafs are coming off a 7-2 shellacking at the hands of the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
"It is another game, but at this point of the year, playing against a division team, you need your points," Drouin said. "Obviously with the way they played in Florida, they're going to come out hard and skating. It's going to be up to us to match that."