Game Preview: Avalanche at Lightning

The mini-Florida road trip concludes tonight as the Avs come off a 4-2 win against the Panthers, but not without some sacrifice. Borna Rendulic is out at least 8 weeks with a fractured leg suffered in the first period on Thursday.

The Lightning are going to be a much tougher opponent for the Avs. The team is currently sitting at the top of the Atlantic Divistion with 60 points. The Lightning's top scorer, Tyler Johnson (48 points), is back in the lineup after sitting out during a loss to the Bruins. Ondrej Palat is providing goals needed to win (two during the third against Edmonton on Thursday). Defenseman Victor Hedman (20 points) is slated to return tonight as well. All that means there'll be no lack of offense for this team, but if games like Monday's drubbing by the Flyers and the one by Wild earlier this season are any indicator, the Avalanche will do just fine if they score early.

LINES

Landeskog - O'Reilly - MacKinnon

Tanguay - Duchene - Iginla

McLeod - Mitchell - Everberg

Cliche - Talbot - Briere

Hejda - Johnson

Guenin - Barrie

Stuart - Holden

Varlamov

Pickard

NOTES

• Speaking of scoring, Steven Stamkos is currently on a four-game goal streak. He's put five on the board in the past week.
• Tampa is sending three players to the All-Star Game. Stamkos and Johnson will be on the main roster, while Jonathan Drouin will be one of the rookies participating in the Skills Competition.
• The game is being played at the newly-named Amalie Arena. What is Amalie? Why, it's "North America's largest privately-held independent blender of motor oils and industrial lubricants". Slick.

GAME INFO

5:00pm MT on ALT2