Tampa Bay @ Toronto preview
Scotiabank Arena
Last Meeting ( Mar 10, 2020 ) Tampa Bay 1, Toronto 2
A pair of three-game winning streaks will be on the line Thursday night when the Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning visit the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Lightning are coming off a 3-2 home win over the Washington Capitals on Monday, and the Maple Leafs defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4-0 on Tuesday.
It will be the Lightning's first visit to Toronto since they won 10 of 13 games in the 2020-21 playoff bubble on the way to winning the Stanley Cup in the bubble in Edmonton.
In their 41 days in Toronto, the Lightning played out of different locker rooms at the Scotiabank Arena.
"The Columbus (Blue Jackets) games. ... we were in the Leafs' room for that," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "So it was a different type of setup. Yeah, so it will most definitely be different walking around that arena now. Especially with fans back in the building."
The game will be the opener of a two-game trip for Tampa Bay while Toronto will play the third game of a five-game homestand.
Toronto had production against Vegas from two of its top players who had been struggling. Auston Matthews scored two goals and Mitchell Marner had a goal and two assists.
"I definitely feel a lot better about my game," Marner said. "I think overall it's been a good couple of games here -- just got to make sure I keep going and just try and keep this mojo going."
Jack Campbell made 26 saves to earn his first shutout of the season, the fifth of his career and his third with Toronto. He will start against the Lightning.
"I thought right from the start we took control of the game, and I thought we maintained that all the way through," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. "We were good on special teams; the goaltending was certainly more indicative of what we think we're capable of."
Defenseman Travis Dermott did not participate in practice Wednesday. He is listed as day-to-day after blocking a shot on Tuesday.
Tampa Bay figures to be a better test for Toronto. Vegas had four key forwards on injured reserve.
"You know that is a short-handed team we're playing over there," Keefe said. "But as we all know, we've played against short-handed teams before and it hasn't gone like this here today, so I thought we did what we needed to do tonight in terms of taking control of the game and maintaining it."
Lightning defensemen Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak were absent from practice Tuesday for "body maintenance" after taking hits against Washington, but Cooper seemed optimistic both would play in Toronto.
A line created when Brayden Point joined Alex Killorn and Anthony Cirelli has accounted for seven of the 13 goals the Lightning have scored over the past three games.
"With those two guys, they play the game the right way, and they work their tails off and they're always in good spots and they're always responsible defensively," Point said. "So they're really fun to play with. I think the biggest thing is that they just work. So you've got to be working on that line. They've been getting rewarded for their work early in the season here."
--Field Level Media