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Bruins vs. Lightning 12/12/19 PREVIEW

An afternoon preview, for a tilt that could be very indicative of what happens next.

By SkyonAir
NHL: OCT 17 Lightning at Bruins Photo by John Crouch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Just the Facts:

The Time: 7pm EST

The Place: Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida

Place to Watch: NESN, TVAS, Sunsports, Sportsnets East, Ontario, and Pacific

Place to Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Opposing SBNation Blog: Raw Charge

Know your Enemy:

  • Nikita Kucherov is once again the Lightning’s golden boy on offense, with 31 points in 28 games.
  • Steven Stamkos and his lantern jaw are the leading goalscorer for the Lightning, with 11 in 26 games.
  • Victor Hedman is a monster on the power play, with 15 points garnered on the man advantage.
  • Andrei Vasilevskiy isn’t the Vasilevskiy of old, but is definitely keeping pace. He has a .910% SV%

Game Preview:

Well, we’re at game number three of this miserable road trip. The Bruins have largely looked lifeless outside of select players, the goaltenders’ SV% is crashing to earth, and players are being subbed out nightly in order to either teach a lesson or contain damage. Torey Krug had to get an X-Ray last night during the game and still played almost 23 minutes thanks to the gong show of discipline and the B’s power play could do nothing. They are getting routinely shelled now and are sliding well out of the top 15 in underlying numbers.

The most wonderful time of the year indeed.

The good news is that the Lightning have been trying with mixed success to catch up after starting so slow, and are playing some wildly mercurial games; Blowing out the Sharks one night, losing to the Wild the next. Play a tight game against Florida, get blown out by the Islanders. Following this trend, it appears the Lightning are due to remain at .500 and lose this game.

But in order to do that, the Boston depth desperately needs to start showing up. And not just the 4th liners: Bjork, DeBrusk, Heinen, Ritchie and the like need to begin producing if this streak is ever going to be snapped before they return to TD Garden on the 17th.

What happens tonight could end up seriously impacting how the B’s handle business going into the new year. Let’s see how they handle it.