The Tampa Bay Lightning are one of the hotter teams in the Eastern Conference, and they will get a test Wednesday night from the best road team in the NHL by hosting the New York Rangers.
Sporting a modest two-game winning streak but a 7-1-0 mark in their past eight matches, the Lightning will be squaring off against the Metropolitan Division club in the first of three meetings, which includes the regular-season finale on April 15.
Coach Jon Cooper’s group is playing like it does not want that mid-April matchup to be its final one of the campaign.
After posting a 2-1-0 record in its three-game road swing last week, the Lightning returned home and worked a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals.
Brandon Hagel scored the game-winner late in that one, and the streaky forward acquired in March 2022 from the Chicago Blackhawks has found his scoring touch after a slow start.
Through the first seven contests, Hagel had just one point — an assist in the season’s second game against the New Jersey Devils. However, he has turned it on from Game 8 forward by totaling seven goals and six assists, culminating with Saturday night’s third-period winner.
“(Those) are the types of games that show what kind of team you really are,” said Hagel of returning to Florida, getting adjusted to the time change and playing right away. “You’ve really got to bring everything that’s left in the tank. … I thought everyone kind of bought into that: Let’s grind this one out and get two points.”
Hagel and Nikita Kucherov are tied in second on the team with 14 points (seven goals, seven assists piece). Jake Guentzel leads with 15 points (six tallies, nine helpers).
New York has demonstrated an odd quirk: The team has struggled mightily at home but has shown great success on the road.
Strangely, the club won its first on home ice on Monday night and improved to 1-6-1 — the last team to record a home win this season after being shut out five times in its first seven home matches.
However, the Rangers are 7-1-1 on the road. And Wednesday’s matchup with the Lightning will represent the first of a stretch of six games, five of them away. The only home stop will be against the Detroit Red Wings this Sunday.
On Monday in the club’s 6-3 home win over the visiting Nashville Predators, the Rangers welcomed back center Vincent Trocheck, who missed 14 games with an upper-body injury suffered in the second game against Buffalo.
“I’ve been watching for the last few weeks,” said Trocheck, who had two assists, six hits and two takeaways on his line with Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere. “I was telling these guys from the outside it looks like we’ve been playing great. Pucks just aren’t going in the net.
“Obviously, these guys care a lot, and we know how much the fans care and how passionate they are, so we want to win for them even more. … Definitely a sigh of relief to get that first (win) out of the way.”
The Rangers removed Trocheck from long-term injured reserve and put forward Matt Rempe on it with an upper-body injury.
–Field Level Media
