TAMPA -- It will be a marquee midseason matchup on many levels when the Colorado Avalanche visit the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; The Spot, ALT, SNE, TVAS).
This will be a rematch of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final, which Colorado won in six games, hoisting the Cup on the ice in Tampa.
The Avalanche lead the NHL. The Lightning are tied for second in the Eastern Conference with the Carolina Hurricanes, one point behind the Detroit Red Wings. Colorado ranks first in goals per game (4.00), Tampa Bay is second (3.44). The Avalanche are also first in goals against per game (2.17) while the Lightning are fourth (2.66).
“We’re excited, for sure,” Tampa Bay center Anthony Cirelli said. “I mean, obviously, they’re a really good team. It’s going to be a fun matchup. These are the fun ones. It’s a good measuring stick game for us.”
The Avalanche can make history this season. They’re 31-3-7 at the midpoint. With 69 points, they’re 11 points ahead of the next closest teams, the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild. At this pace, they’ll finish with 62 wins and 138 points.
The 2022-23 Boston Bruins hold the NHL single-season records for wins (65) and points (135). The 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and 2018-19 Lightning are tied for second in wins (62). The 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens are second (132) in points, followed by the 1995-96 Red Wings (131), the 1977-78 Canadiens (129) and the 2018-19 Lightning (128).
“I bet you they don’t get to our 62 wins,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s pretty close. It’s hard. They’re going to crush the points, I think.”
Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon leads the NHL in goals (35) and points (74), and teammate Cale Makar leads NHL defensemen with 47 points (12 goals, 35 assists).
The Avalanche won 10 straight before a 2-1 loss at the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Sunday.
“Extremely good team,” Tampa Bay center Brayden Point said. “Lots of talent. I feel like anything you really give them, they take advantage of, so we’ve got to be really dialed in with our system and just be smart with the puck, because they’ve got so many guys that are so skilled and fast that, if you do turn it over, they can jump on you.”
The Lightning have climbed the standings despite a 1-4-2 start and many injuries.
Only three players have appeared in all 41 games: forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand, Yanni Gourde and Jake Guentzel. Most notably, defensemen Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh have missed 23 games each, and they’re still out. McDonagh is expected back this month, Hedman in February.
“We’ve kind of had that next-man-up mentality,” Cirelli said. “Obviously, you’re never replacing a Victor Hedman or a Ryan McDonagh, but everyone collectively is just a little bit better.
“The young guys coming up and playing a lot of minutes have been unbelievable for us, so we just keep plugging away and chipping away game after game. It just goes to show how much depth we have in the whole organization. Anyone who comes in just fits seamlessly.”
It also goes to show how stable the system is and how much everyone buys in.
“The thing about this group is, there’s just a lot of belief in what we’re doing from top to bottom,” Cooper said. “It’s really, really helped that when these new guys have come in that the veteran players, they’ve embraced them. It’s been a pretty good atmosphere to be around.”
Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov entered Monday fourth in the NHL with 59 points (20 goals, 39 assists). He was named the NHL’s first star of the week for the second straight week after posting 10 points (three goals, seven assists) as Tampa Bay swept a three-game California trip.
The Lightning have won seven straight for the second time this season. In between the two streaks, they had a 2-6-1 stretch in which Cooper felt they played relatively well but didn’t have puck luck.
“I think after those first seven games, we’ve been a pretty darn consistent team, and it’s not so much about what we score but what we keep out,” Cooper said.
When these teams met earlier this season, Colorado won 3-2 at Ball Arena in Denver on Nov. 4. Cooper said he felt the Avalanche were the better team and deserved to win.
That’s how he will look at this matchup. The measuring stick isn’t necessarily the final score but how the Lightning perform against the Avalanche.
“I’ll judge this game on how you feel when you leave,” Cooper said. “Sometimes you play really well and don’t win. You get beat by a goalie. You get beat by a lack of puck luck, something like that. But I’ll be disappointed if we get outplayed.”
