Lightning at Blackhawks preview

LIGHTNING (31-12-3) at BLACKHAWKS (22-18-6)
8:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, WGN, NHL.TV

Anisimov has missed the past 10 games with an upper-body injury. He centered the third line between Alex DeBrincat and Ryan Hartman at morning skate.
The Lightning have lost a season-high three straight games and will play the second of an eight-game road trip without forward Ondrej Palat, who is out 6-8 weeks because of a lower-body injury sustained during the third period of a 5-2 loss at the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.

Players to watch

Lightning forward Tyler Johnson has eight points (four goals, four assists) in his past six games, and 26 points (12 goals, 14 assists) in his past 20.
Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past five games. He had three points (two goals, assist) in a 7-3 loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday to give him 800 in his NHL career.

They said it

"All I know is, every time we play them it's usually an exciting game. I know the games at Amalie [Arena], they've always been jump-out-of-your-seat type games. But they've usually been close. ... We got [Nikita Kucherov] in our room and got Kane in their room, a couple of pretty fun guys to watch, [Steven] Stamkos and [Jonathan] Toews, you just go down the list. Lot of skill out there, should be a fun game." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper
"Top team in the League, have a tremendous power play, top line, couple of top guys and their other guys are pretty good. They're fast, quick, they can make plays, they like the puck." -- Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville

Lightning projected lineup

Nikita Kucherov -- Brayden Point -- Tyler Johnson
Vladislav Namestnikov -- Steven Stamkos -- Chris Kunitz
Alex Killorn --
Matthew Peca
-- Yanni Gourde
Michael Bournival
-- Cedric Paquette -- Ryan Callahan
Jake Dotchin -- Anton Stralman
Mikhail Sergachev -- Dan Girardi
Braydon Coburn -- Andrej Sustr
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Louis Domingue
Scratched:Cory Conacher, Slater Koekkoek
Injured:Ondrej Palat (lower body), Victor Hedman (lower body), Peter Budaj (lower body)

Blackhawks projected lineup

Brandon Saad -- Jonathan Toews -- Anthony Duclair
Patrick Sharp -- Nick Schmaltz -- Patrick Kane
Alex DeBrincat -- Artem Anisimov -- Ryan Hartman
Tomas Jurco -- David Kampf -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Duncan Keith -- Jordan Oesterle
Erik Gustafsson -- Brent Seabrook
Michal Kempny -- Connor Murphy
Jeff Glass
Anton Forsberg
Scratched:Lance Bouma, Tommy Wingels, Jan Rutta
Injured: Corey Crawford (upper body), Michal Rozsival (upper body)

Status report

The Blackhawks assigned defenseman Gustav Forsling to Rockford of the American Hockey League to activate Anisimov off injured reserve. ... The Lightning recalled Bournival and Peca from Syracuse of the AHL. Each will make their season debut.

Stat pack

Vasilevskiy has allowed four or more goals in five straight starts. ... Toews has no points in his past four games after getting nine in a five-game point streak.