Less than 24 hours ago, both clubs secured 5-4 victories on Saturday night, with the Lightning topping the Pittsburgh Penguins on home ice in Tampa and the Panthers stunning the Capitals in overtime in Washington, D.C. for their second straight win and sixth in the last eight games.
During Florida's red-hot 6-2-0 stretch, all six wins have come against current playoff teams.
"We've just got a bit of our swagger back," said Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo, who made 26 saves in the win. "We believe in ourselves, and the way we're playing we've been finding different ways to win. We're getting a little bit of that momentum going like we did last year. We've got to keep plugging away night after night here."
A historical night in the District, Luongo appeared in the 1,029th NHL game of his Hall of Fame career, which moved him into a tie with Patrick Roy for the second-most games played ever by a goaltender in NHL history. Additionally, the 39-year-old also notched his 483rd victory, which is just one behind former Panthers netminder Ed Belfour for third place on the NHL's all-time list.
Luongo, however, is expected to be on Florida's bench against the Lightning, as he will likely rest up before continuing his climb up the NHL's all-time rankings. In his place, backup James Reimer should be in between the pipes, looking to continuing building upon a 5-2-2 stretch.
"We're just playing to win games, trying to get back in the playoff race," said Luongo, who owns a 4-1-0 record over his last five starts. "That's my goal, personally. I want to take part in the playoffs again. [Milestones] are nice when they come and go, but it's not something I really keep tabs on that much."
Mike Hoffman scored the game-winner for the Panthers in D.C., taking a smooth pass from Keith Yandle and beating Braden Holtby on the power play at 1:31 of overtime. "Yandle made a great pass through the seam, and it was an open net," Hoffman said of the scoring sequence.
The goal was Hoffman's team-leading 25th goal of the season and 11th on the power play.
"Troch [Vincent Trocheck] just told me what happened," said Yandle, who registered his 27th power-play point of the season on the play, which ranks fourth in the NHL and first among all defensemen. "I don't really know how [the puck] got to my stick. I was going down and it came right on my stick. Then I saw Hoff open, and he made a great shot."
The Lightning, meanwhile, snapped out of a two-game losing streak against Pittsburgh thanks to a pair of third-period goals from Tyler Johnson and J.T. Miller. After Johnson put Tampa up 4-3 just 4:54 into the final frame, Miller went on to make it 5-3 with the would-be winner at 14:03.
At 40-11-4, the Lightning's 84 points this season are the most in the NHL and 10 more than the next-best team, the Calgary Flames. Tampa previously defeated the Panthers 2-1 in a shootout on Oct. 6 and 7-3 on Nov. 21 at Amalie Arena, and 5-4 in overtime on Dec. 1 at BB&T Center.
Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov leads the NHL in points (81) and power-play points (30).
"We get in trouble when we look too big picture," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said of Florida's road ahead. "We know the position we're in. Obviously we're scoreboard watching every night. We're just trying to take it one game at a time. I know it's a bit of a cliché, but the minute we start talking about how many games we have, how many wins we need, that's when we get in trouble."
The Panthers own a 7-1-3 record in the second game of back-to-backs this season.
