Pluses, minuses for Lightning-Penguins

Each Wednesday throughout the regular season, Kevin Weekes will be offering his pluses and minuses for the teams competing in the NBCSN "Wednesday Night Hockey" game in his Weekes on the Web blog.

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins have been Stanley Cup contenders for the past three seasons, over which time each has reached the Eastern Conference Final twice.
There's a decent chance each could make it again, given the offensive depth and explosiveness each team has.
There should be a playoff-like atmosphere when the Lightning (37-10-2) visit the Penguins (26-17-6) at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday Night Hockey (8 p.m., NBCSN, SN, TVAS).
Here's my breakdown of the game:

Lightning

Pluses: They've been the best team in the NHL all season. Nikita Kucherov leads the League with 78 points (22 goals, 56 assists), and Brayden Point is among the goal-scoring leaders with 30. Steven Stamkos has 57 points (26 goals, 31 assists), which ranks third on the Lightning.

Tampa Bay has great depth at every position. Offensively, they have seven players with at least 11 goals. Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh are its top two defenseman and have combined for 59 points and a plus-34 rating.
The goaltending has been great. We all know about Andrei Vasilevskiy (20-6-2), who finished third in Vezina Trophy voting last season. He's got a .925 save percentage and three shutouts. Louis Domingue is 16-4-0 and filled in admirably for Vasilevskiy when he was injured earlier this season.
Minuses: There really haven't been many weaknesses, but we're in the dog days of the season, so this is the time the Lightning's game can slip if they're not careful. They have a huge lead in the division and conference, so they can afford a losing streak. But you can bet they want to win as many games and rack up as many points as they can before the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin.

Penguins

Pluses: They have a handful of superstars, beginning with the most valuable player of the 2019 Honda NHL All-Star Game, Sidney Crosby. He, along with forwards Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel and All-Star defenseman Kris Letang, are each capable of taking a game over and are major reasons why the Penguins recently won 10 of 11 games.

Special teams has been inconsistent, but overall the Penguins rank sixth in power-play percentage (24.8) and penalty-killing percentage (83.3). There are a lot of teams that would take those numbers in an instant.
Although their record this season doesn't meet their expectations, they generally show up for big games against the best opponents. We know the Lightning fit that criteria.
Minuses: As good as Malkin has been offensively with 53 points (14 goals, 39 assists), he is minus-20 this season, which would be the worst of his 13-season NHL career. He said on Tuesday that he's frustrated and knows he needs to be better defensively and without the puck.
The Penguins have been too inconsistent. The followed up winning 10 of 11 by losing four of five and allowing at least five goals in four of those five games. That isn't going to get it done for a team with Stanley Cup hopes.
The defense needs work. They traded Jamie Oleksiak, who struggled, to the Dallas Stars on Monday and remain without Justin Schultz because of injury. Letang can't do it all by himself. Pittsburgh has also allowed a League-high 11 shorthanded goals.

THREE THINGS TO WATCH

1. Will the Penguins raise their game?
   2. Does Malkin back up his words?
   3. Special teams battle. Each team ranks in the top six in power-play and penalty-kill percentage.