It is Hockey Night in Florida, and its a doozy of one too. Forget the Governor’s Cup, it’s about first place in the Atlantic Division tonight. We’ve got several players on both sides of the ledger coming in hot tonight, and there is a clear motivation to win for both teams. ‘Tis a magical time of year.
The Numbers
[table id=TS02G75 /] [table id=IS02G75 /] [table id=GM02G75 /]* – Stats are courtesy of Corsica.Hockey and Hockey-Reference.com
Projected Lineups
[table id=PF02G72 /] [table id=PD02G75 /] [table id=PG02G34 /] [table id=OF02G75 /] [table id=OD02G75 /] [table id=OG02G75 /]The Hat Trick
Biggest Game of the Regular Season: That term is thrown around a lot, probably too much. Tonight, however, is truly the most important game of the season. With Boston back a five points of both teams with one more game played, the Battle of Florida has become the Battle for First Place. This game will go a long way toward determining which of the two teams will claim the top spot of the Atlantic.
To boot, both teams have a fairly soft schedule after tonight. The Panthers will face all non-playoff teams down the stretch, while Tampa will face 5 non-playoff teams plus the Rangers and Islanders. May the best team win.
Divided By Three: The Line of Jussi Jokinen, Vincent Trocheck, and Reilly Smith just keeps impressing. Each member of the Divisible By Three Line™ comes into tonight on some sort of offensive streak. Jokinen is on a four game point streak, Smith is on a three game point streak, and Trocheck is on a three game goal-scoring streak. This line has just been on fire for the last month plus. Trocheck has not gone more than two games without a point since mid-February and is a point per game over his last 17 games, Smith has eight points in his last nine games, and Jokinen has a career high in assists, having last suffered a 3+ game point drought back in January. Honestly, these guys are just flatout awesome.
Greased Lightning: Tampa won a barnburner against the New York Islanders last night 7-4. It marked their third straight victory, and fourth in their last six games. Several Lightning players are on hot streaks coming into tonight. Ondrej Palat has a three game point streak, Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman each have four game point streaks, and Nikita Kucherov has a four game goal-scoring streak.
This may be a team playing the 2nd game of a back to back, but it is also a hot team. Tread carefully.
Closing Thoughts
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