The Lightning’s road trip continues tonight as they’re in Chicago to face-off against the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks, just two days removed from having faced the Stanley Cup runner-ups Boston Bruins.
Tonight’s game is the first of two meetings on the year between the two teams and the only meeting at the Untied Center where the Bolts have won three straight games against Chicago dating back to the 2010-11 season. The teams will meet again on October 24 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
The last time the Bolts were in Chicago (1-0-0, 2 pts) came on April 3, 2011 and former goalie Mike Smith pitched a 2-0 shutout behind goals from Vincent Lecavalier and Nate Thompson. Their most recent face-off came on November 4, 2011 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in a 5-4 overtime victory with Steven Stamkos netting a hat trick.
The Lightning (0-1-0, 0 pts) enters tonight’s game looking to pick-up their first win of the season and to snap an eight-game road losing streak dating back to the end of last season.
Captain Martin St. Louis comes into tonight’s contest on a three-game point streak against the Blackhawks having posted a goal and five assists during that stretch and in his past two games against the Blackhawks, Steven Stamkos has netted four goals. In five career games, Stamkos has tallied seven goals.
Despite out-shooting the Bruins 15-6 in the first period, Boston capitalized first netting a shorthanded goal by Chris Kelly on a penalty shot that gave the Bruins the 1-0 lead. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time in NHL history that a team scored its first goal of the season on a penalty shot.
Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron also scored, with Bergeron tallying the second shorthanded goal to give Boston the 3-1 lead.
Valtteri Filppula making his Lightning debut scored the Bolts lone goal midway through the second period to tie the score at 1-1. Eric Brewer and Alex Killorn picked up the assists.
Chicago opened their defense of the Stanley Cup with a 6-4 win over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.
Patrick Kane, Brent Seabrook, Brandon Bollig, Johnny Oduya, Brandon Saad and Marian Hossa all scored for Chicago with Corey Crawford making 28 saves in the win.
Lightning Nutz and Boltz
Marty St. Louis sits just two points behind Bobby Orr for 94th on the all-time NHL points list.
The Lightning and Blackhawks both ranked in the top three in scoring last season with the Blackhawks holding down the second spot averaging 3.10 goals/game and the Bolts right behind them in third averaging 3.06 goals/game.
Projected Lineup - Lightning
Forward Lines
Ryan Malone - Steven Stamkos - Martin St. Louis
Alex Killorn - Valtteri Filppula - Teddy Purcell
Ondrej Palat - Tyler Johnson - Richard Panik
Pierre-Cedric Labrie - Nate Thompson - B.J. Crombeen
Defensive Pairings
Victor Hedman - Sami Salo
Eric Brewer - Andrej Sustr
Matt Carle - Radko Gudas
Goaltender
Projected Lineup – Blackhawks
Forward Lines
Bryan Bickell, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane
Patrick Sharp, Michal Handzus, Marian Hossa
Brandon Saad, Andrew Shaw, Ben Smith
Brandon Bollig, Marcus Kruger, Joakim Nordstrom
Defensive Pairings
Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook
Johnny Oduya, Niklas Hjalmarsson
Nick Leddy, Mike Kostka
Goaltender
Corey Crawford
Injury Status
Lightning: Brian Lee (Knee-IR), Matt Taormina (upper-body-IR)
Chicago: none
The Week Ahead
The Lightning will travel to Buffalo on Tuesday night to finish their three-game road trip to start the season before heading home where they’ll start a season-long seven-game homestand beginning with their home opener on Thursday, October 10 against the Florida Panthers
For more info: Tampa Bay Lightning, Chicago Blackhawks
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