PROJECTED LINES
Lines are from Tuesday's Morning Skate at AMALIE Arena, and subject to change.
Forwards
Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn - Vladislav Namestnikov - Jonathan Drouin
Adam Erne - Yanni Gourde - Joel Vermin
Luke Witkowski - Gabriel Dumont - JT Brown
Defensemen
Victor Hedman - Jake Dotchin
Jason Garrison - Anton Stralman
Braydon Coburn - Andrej Sustr
Goaltender
Andrei Vasilevskiy expected to start
TUESDAY'S MATCHUP
The Lightning and the Coyotes are playing the final game of their two-game regular season series...Arizona defeated Tampa Bay 5-3 on January 21, the Coyotes opening up a 5-1 lead by the end of the second period and holding off a Lightning rally in the third to end a four-game losing skid against the Bolts...Ondrej Palat had a goal and an assist in the loss while Vladislav Namestnikov and Cedric Paquette also netted goals for the Bolts...The Lightning registered 48 shots on goal in that loss, their most this season and most since putting up 50 on Dec. 21, 2013 vs. CAR...Tampa Bay has recorded at least a point in its lat four home games versus Arizona, going 3-0-1 since the start of the 2010-11 season and is 6-1-1 in its last eight games against the Coyotes...The Lightning are 9-6-1 all-time at home versus Arizona...The Bolts are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games overall against Arizona and are 20-15-1 all-time overall versus the
Coyotes.
LIGHTNING-COYOTES STORYLINES
The Lightning enter tonight's game trailing Toronto by two points for the final wild card in the East and trailing Boston by five points for third place in the Atlantic Division...The Bolts play their final game against a Pacific Division team tonight and are 5-6-2 against the Pacific in 2016-17...Tampa Bay has picked up points in 15 of their last 19 games (12-4-3)...On Feb. 3, the Lightning were tied with Buffalo for seventh place in the Atlantic and tied for 15th in the East, but since, the Bolts own the second-best point percentage in the East (.711) and fourth-best point percentage in the NHL behind Chicago (.842), Calgary (.816) and Pittsburgh (.727)...Since Feb. 3, the Bolts own the fourth-best GAA (2.16) in the league.
INJURIES
2016-17 Regular Season Man Games Lost: 220
Ryan Callahan - Follow up surgical procedure on right hip (OUT INDEFINITELY; INJURED JAN. 7) 30 Games
Tyler Johnson - Lower-body injury (DAY-TO-DAY; INJURED MARCH 9) 5 Games
Vladislav Namestnikov - Lower-body injury (DAY-TO-DAY; INJURED MARCH 13) 3 Games
Cedric Paquette - Lower-body injury (DAY-TO-DAY; INJURED MARCH 9) 5 Games
Steven Stamkos - Lateral meniscus tear in right knee (OUT APPROXIMATELY 4 MONTHS; INJURED NOV. 15) 54 Games
TRANSACTIONS
March 19 - Re-assigned F Joel Vermin to AHL Syracuse
March 19 - Re-assigned F Byron Froese to AHL Syracuse
March 18 - Recalled F Joel Vermin from AHL Syracuse
March 16 - Recalled F Byron Froese from AHL Syracuse
March 15 - Re-assigned F Byron Froese to AHL Syracuse
March 13 - Recalled F Byron Froese from AHL Syracuse
March 13 - Re-assigned F Matthew Peca to AHL Syracuse
IN THE NIK OF TIME
Tampa Bay forward Nikita Kucherov netted two goals March 18 vs. WSH for his seventh multi-goal game of the season and 13th of his career...Kucherov has recorded 12 goals and 10 assists over his last 13 games...Since Feb. 13, Kucherov leads the NHL for scoring. Kucherov has set career highs for goals (33), assists (38) and points (71) this season...Kucherov ranks tied for fourth in the NHL for goals and tied for seventh for scoring...Kucherov is just the fourth Lightning player to record back-to-back 30-goal seasons, joining Vincent Lecavalier (5-straight seasons from 2002-03 to 2007-08), Martin St. Louis (4-straight seasons from 2002-03 to 2006-07) and Steven Stamkos (3-straight seasons from 2009-10 to 2011-12 and 2-straight seasons from 2014-15 to 2015-16)...With his power-play marker on Saturday, Kucherov pulled into a tie with PHI's Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds for most power-play goals in the NHL...Kucherov also tied Chris Gratton for 12th place on the Lightning's all-time power-play goals list.
