PROJECTED LINES
Lines are from Thursday's morning skate in Toronto, and subject to change.
Forwards
Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn - Yanni Gourde - Cory Conacher
Jonathan Drouin - Greg McKegg - Joel Vermin
Adam Erne - Vladislav Namestnikov - Michael Bournival
Defensemen
Victor Hedman - Jake Dotchin
Anton Stralman - Luke Witkowski
Braydon Coburn - Andrej Sustr
Goaltender
Andrei Vasilevskiy expected to start
THURSDAY'S MATCHUP
The Lightning and the Maple Leafs are playing the final game of their four-game regular season series...The Bolts are 1-1-1 against Toronto this season as the home team has yet to win in the series this season...The Maple Leafs earned a 5-0 victory over the Lightning March 16 at AMALIE Arena as Frederik Andersen made all 33 saves to earn the shutout...Toronto also won 3-2 in overtime in Tampa on Dec. 29, Nazem Kadri netting the game-winning goal on a power play at 3:37 of the extra session...Tampa Bay blitzed Toronto 7-3 in its last visit to the Air Canada Centre on Oct. 25, Steven Stamkos (2g, 2a) and Nikita Kucherov (g, 3a) each recording four points in the win...The seven goals scored by the Bolts in that win is tied for the most they've put up in a game this season...Tampa Bay has won three of its last four visits to Toronto and is 16-23-4 with one tie all-time in Toronto...The Lightning are 5-2-1 in their last eight games versus the Maple Leafs and are 34-45-7 with two ties all-time overall against the Leafs.
LIGHTNING-MAPLE LEAFS STORYLINES
The Lightning enter tonight's game five points behind Toronto for the final wild card in the Eastern Conference...The Bolts have won five of their last six road games and have collected points from six of their last seven games overall...Since Feb. 4, Tampa Bay is 17-6-4 and owns the third-best point percentage in the NHL (.704) behind only Chicago (.759) and Washington (.714).
INJURIES
2016-17 Regular Season Man Games Lost: 257
JT Brown - Lower-body injury (DAY-TO-DAY; INJURED APRIL 2) 1 Game
Ryan Callahan - Follow up surgical procedure on right hip (OUT INDEFINITELY; INJURED JAN. 7) 38 Games
Jason Garrison - Lower-body injury (DAY-TO-DAY; INJURED APRIL 2) 1 Game
Cedric Paquette - Lower-body injury (DAY-TO-DAY; INJURED MARCH 9) 13 Games
Steven Stamkos - Lateral meniscus tear in right knee (OUT APPROXIMATELY 4 MONTHS; INJURED NOV. 15) 62 Games
TRANSACTIONS
April 3 - Recalled F Joel Vermin from AHL Syracuse
April 3 - Re-assigned F Joel Vermin to AHL Syracuse
April 1 - Recalled F Joel Vermin from AHL Syracuse A
pril 1 - Re-assigned F Joel Vermin to AHL Syracuse
March 29 - Recalled F Joel Vermin from AHL Syracuse
March 28 - Re-assigned F Joel Vermin to AHL Syracuse
BACK TO BACK
Tonight, the Lightning begin their 16th of 16 back-to-back sets in 2016-17...The Bolts have gotten at least a point in three straight first halves of a back-to-back set and seven of their last eight first halves of a back-to-back set.
PUTTING UP PALAT OF POINTS
Tampa Bay forward Ondrej Palat has recorded points in seven of his last nine games (3g, 10a) and 11 of his last 14 games (4g, 13a)...Since March 23, Palat leads the NHL for points with three goals and eight assists over seven games...Palat has set career highs for power-play goals (5) and power-play points (14) this season...Palat is +10 since February 1 after going -5 from October to January...Palat is the Lightning franchise's all-time leader for plus-minus at +83 (second: Nikita Kucherov, +60).
IN THE NIK OF TIME
Lightning leading scorer Nikita Kucherov has set career highs for goals (38), assists (43) and points (81) this season...Kucherov was named the NHL's First Star for March after notching 12 goals and 10 assists in 14 games during the month, and his 22 points in March set a new Tampa Bay franchise record for most points in a single month, bettering Steven Stamkos' mark of 12-9--21 in November 2010...Since February 21, Kucherov has recorded 17 goals and 15 assists over 19 games and leads the NHL for scoring.
