The Tampa Bay Lightning are bringing their 10-game winning streak into Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.
The Lightning are fresh off a 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night and will try to win their 11th straight game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
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These two teams met in Tampa Bay back on Dec. 4, and it was a wild affair. The Penguins held on for dear life in a 4-3 win after they had a 3-0 lead for most of the game. Evgeni Malkin scored the game-winning goal late in the third period.
The Lightning will start Andre Vasilevskiy on Tuesday after backup Jonas Johansson started on Monday. Vasilevskiy has been sensational this season, winning 18 games with a 2.33 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage. He’s a big goaltender and takes up a ton of space in the crease, so creating traffic in front will be paramount for the Penguins.
Brayden Point got injured during Monday’s game and his status for Tuesday is up in the air. He needed help getting off the ice after scoring a goal to make it 3-0.
Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel are still doing their things this season. Kucherov has compiled 23 goals and 67 points in 40 games, while Guentzel has 20 goals and 47 points in 44 games.
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Brandon Hagel has also been great, racking up 22 goals and 41 points, ditto for Darren Raddysh, who has 12 goals and 39 points as a defenseman.
The Penguins are set to get Bryan Rust back after missing the weekend back-to-back with an injury. He was a full participant during the morning skate.
However, they’ll now be without star defenseman Erik Karlsson for at least two weeks. The Penguins announced that he’d be out with an undisclosed injury before Tuesday’s morning skate.
This is a major loss since Karlsson is having an outstanding season. He does it all on the blue line and has been elite at generating offense in the offensive zone.
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Here’s a look at the expected lines for this game:
Forwards
Rakell-Crosby-Rust
Malkin-Novak-Chinakhov
Mantha-Kindel-Brazeau
Dewar-Lizotte-Acciari
Defense
Kulak-Letang
Wotherspoon-St. Ivany
Shea-Clifton
Arturs Silovs will start in goal for the Penguins after he was the first goaltender off during the morning skate.
Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET on SportsNet Pittsburgh and fans can also listen to the game on 105.9 ‘The X.’
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