Tampa Bay @ Toronto preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 4, 2019 ) Tampa Bay 3, Toronto 1

The Tampa Bay Lightning have had four days to think about an uneven start to the season and captain Steven Stamkos didn’t waste any time trying to light a fire under the 2018-19 Presidents’ Trophy winners, who lost in the first round of the playoffs. Stamkos and the Lightning look to find the form and battle level from last season’s team when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.

“We just continue to be the freewheeling team that thinks we can just come into games and win because we’re skilled,” Stamkos told the Tampa Bay Times. “We keep falling back into the same old habits that we’ve been doing, that cost us the season we had last year. Unless we change things, it’s going to be a really, really, really long year.” The Lightning were outshot 28-17 in the first two periods of a season-opening victory against Florida and have lost the last two, including Sunday’s 4-3 overtime setback at Carolina when they gave up 44 shots and managed only 13, but they have won seven of the last nine against the Maple Leafs. Toronto won its first two games this season before blowing a three-goal lead in a 6-5 shootout loss to Montreal and dropped a 3-2 contest against St. Louis at home Monday. “We just didn’t make enough plays in the third (period) and they had the one that resulted in the victory for them,” Maple Leafs captain John Tavares told reporters after his team registered a 34-30 edge in shots Monday.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Sun (Tampa Bay), TVA, Sportsnet Ontario (Toronto)

ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (1-1-1): Center Brayden Point, who had double hip surgery in the offseason after recording 92 points in 2018-19, could make his season debut Thursday. “For us, everyone just can’t look at Pointer and say, ‘He’s back. He’s going to do it all’ (But) he’s such an important player to our group,” defenseman Victor Hedman told reporters. “Super excited to see him hustling around out there. To get one of those players back is a boost to our team and makes us even better.” Hedman is slated to play his 700th NHL game Thursday and is tied with Kevin Shattenkirk (three points) for second on the team in points behind fellow blueliner Mikhail Sergachev (four assists).

ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (2-1-1): Center Auston Matthews was kept off the scoresheet despite three shots Monday after scoring five times in the first three games, but linemate William Nylander scored for the second straight contest. “That was his best (game) by far,” coach Mike Babcock told reporters of Nylander, who has recorded a point in all four games. “He had the puck, he got it back, he made things happen, his most competitive game.” Forward Mitch Marner (two goals) and defenseman Morgan Rielly (five assists) share the team lead at five points with Matthews, but forward Kasperi Kapanen has struggled out of the gate with zero points and is a minus-4.

OVERTIME

1. Toronto's 19-year-old rookie D Rasmus Sandin logged a season-high 15 minutes, 20 seconds Monday and is plus-1 in four games.

2. The Lightning are last in the league with 26 shots per game and have allowed the fourth-most shots (36.3) entering Wednesday.

3. Maple Leafs G Frederik Andersen is 3-9-1 with a 3.69 goals-against average and .880 save percentage all time versus Tampa Bay.

PREDICTION: Lightning 4, Maple Leafs 2