Reeling Canucks Walk Into Tampa's Unbeaten Barn
Vancouver brings a six-game skid and a leaky road record to a Lightning building where the hosts have yet to lose this fall.
Written before the game
The numbers behind the standings say this one leans hard toward the home side. Tampa Bay has been the better team at both ends of the ice, not just on the scoreboard, while Vancouver has been chasing the play most nights.
The gap shows up in chance quality. The Lightning average 3.52 expected goals for per game -- how many goals their chances are worth -- against 2.8 allowed. The Canucks sit on the wrong side of that ledger, generating chances worth 2.5 goals while giving up 3.74. Shot attempts tell the same story: Tampa Bay has out-attempted opponents roughly 62 to 50 per game, while Vancouver has been out-attempted about 62 to 47.
The venue sharpens it. Tampa Bay is 4-0-0 at home; Vancouver is 1-4-1 on the road. The Canucks did find some offence last time out, with Elias Pettersson and Liam Ohgren scoring and Filip Chytil picking up an assist in his season debut after a preseason shoulder injury.
Standings stakes are real for the visitors. At 2-6-1 with 5 points and a -13 goal differential, Vancouver is 14th in the West. The Lightning, 5-2-0 with 10 points, sit 3rd in the Atlantic and 5th in the East. Andrei Vasilevskiy remains the anchor in the Tampa crease, with Dennis Hildeby day-to-day and Yanni Gourde on injured reserve.
