Sunday, November 12, 2017

Lightning Strikes: Weekly Preview 11/12/17-11/18/17

The Tampa Bay Lightning will look to continue their hot start to the season. They will finished their West Coast swing and then come home for two games.

The Bolts will finish up their West Coast swing when they face the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night. They will then have three days off before facing the Dallas Stars on Thursday night. The Lightning finish off the week with a game at home against the New York Islanders.

Tampa Bay will face an Anaheim lineup that has been depleted by injury in the early season. The Bolts will need to get the first goal of the game to take the home crowd out of the game. The Lightning will need to stop the top six forwards of the Ducks since they do most of the damage on the offensive side of the puck for the team. Tampa Bay will need to get pucks on net with traffic in front. The Bolts will need to have a strong even strength game since the Ducks have a decent penalty kill. The Lightning will need to make quick decisions with the puck since the Ducks do block a lot of shot attempts.

The Ducks are going to need to stop the top line of the Lightning, who have combined for 77 points through 17 games so far this year. Anaheim is going to need to get some traffic in front of Tampa Bay's net to get some dirty goals on rebounds and second chances. The Ducks will need to be physical and establish a forecheck early in the game to spend some much needed attack time in the offensive zone. Anaheim needs to make sure that they have the lead after two periods since they don't have a regulation loss if they have the lead entering the third period. The Ducks will need to be aware of the Lightning defense joining the play in the offensive zone, which they have been know to do.

The Lightning have three days off before facing the Dallas Stars at home. The Bolts will need to figure out a way to keep Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin off the board since they have decent career numbers against the Lightning. Tampa Bay will need to play solid defense since the Stars can score and in bunches. The Lightning need to get the first goal of the game since the Stars play better with the lead as opposed to when they are trailing. The Lightning will also need to stay out of the penalty box since the Stars have the best power play in the League at 31.3%.

The Stars are going to need to get the first goal of the game to take the home crowd out of the game. Dallas will need to make sure that it plays a good even strength game, but also need to play stellar special teams like they have all season. The Stars are going to need to have the lead entering the third period since they don't have a third period comeback yet this year. Dallas will need to take advantage of a weak home penalty kill by the Lightning. The Stars need to figure out a way to stop the balanced attack of Tampa Bay.

The Lightning will take on the New York Islanders on Saturday night to end their week. Tampa Bay will need to get some traffic in front of the net because Jaroslav Halak has been very good this year. The Bolts will need to get the first goal of the game since the Isles are 5-0-0 when they get the first goal of the game, and 4-6-2 when the opposition scores first. Tampa Bay will need to be sure that they play a strong even strength game since the Isles are a good team when playing 5-on-5 hockey. The Lightning need to be area of when John Tavares is on the ice since he leads the team in points with 19.

The Isles need to get the first goal of the game since they are 5-0-0 when scoring the first goal of the game. New York needs to get off to a fast start and establish the cycle and forecheck game early to spend some time in the offensive zone. The Islanders need to stop the balanced attack of the Bolts. New York will need to find a way to slow down Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, who have gotten off to hot starts this season.

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