After going 4-1-0 on a five-game road trip, the Tampa Bay Lightning want to put an emphasis on matching that success at home. "Obviously we're happy with the results," defenseman Victor Hedman said. "But we want to keep it going at home because we haven't played a lot of home games at this point and we've got two quick ones before we head back out on the road." Tampa Bay is 5-2-1 this season at Amalie Arena. Forward Nikita Kucherov has 23 points (nine goals, 14 assists) in 19 games and is tied for second in the NHL in scoring with Mark Scheifele of the Winnipeg Jets, but coach Jon Cooper is just as impressed with Kucherov's efforts on defense and his plus-10 rating, which leads Tampa Bay. "When you talk about 200-foot players, I'm not sure if Kucherov's name is going to come up," Cooper said. "But he's rounded into a 200-foot player. He backchecks hard and he knows where to go on the defensive end. He doesn't get enough credit for how much he's evolved as a defensive player, because he didn't have that in his repertoire when he first came in."
