League’s best Lightning pose tough road test for Jets

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This article was published 05/03/2019 (2377 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TAMPA BAY — The Winnipeg Jets are feeling pretty positive about their game these days, but they face a tall task Tuesday night as they try to keep the good times rolling against the NHL’s best team.

Tampa Bay has laid waste to the rest of the league, posting an incredible 50-12-4 record that has them on pace to be one of the best regular-season squads in history. That includes a dominant 27-5-2 record in their own backyard at Amalie Arena.

Winnipeg has rattled off two straight wins over quality opponents in Nashville and Columbus and will be looking for the first three-game win streak in more than a month. The Jets are 39-22-4 and in first place in the Central Division, one point ahead of the Predators with three games in hand.

The Jets beat the Lightning 5-4 in overtime in December at Bell MTS Place in one of the more wide-open, exciting games of the season. Five of the NHL’s top 15 scorers are in the lineup Tuesday night in Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov (106 points), Brayden Point (80 points) and Steven Stamkos (77 points) along with the Jets’ Blake Wheeler (80) and Mark Scheifele (75 points). Perhaps a sequel is in the works?

“It was loose, but it wasn’t casual,” coach Paul Maurice said of the earlier meeting. “There was an awful lot of speed to the game. I think players on both teams probably liked it because neither team was sitting on top of the other, they were trading chances. I think as we get into March it will be a tighter game.”

There will be no lineup changes to the squad that beat the Blue Jackets 5-2 Sunday night to kick off this four-game eastern road trip, which includes stops in Carolina and Washington later this week.

Connor Hellebuyck starts in goal, Adam Lowry will serve the final game of his two-game suspension, and defencemen Josh Morrissey, Dustin Byfuglien and Joe Morrow are all out of the lineup with injuries.

Forward Matt Hendricks and defenceman Bogdan Kiselevich will be the healthy scratches.

For what it’s worth, Tampa is viewing a meeting with Winnipeg as a measuring stick of sorts.

“There’s a reason they’ve been one of the top teams,” Tampa coach Jon Cooper said Tuesday morning. “It’s a pretty good blend they’ve got over there. Usually the games with us are some pretty entertaining ones.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg