Tampa Bay Lightning look to push forward as they welcome Los Angeles Kings - NHL Preview
Tampa Bay Lightning will look to continue their resurgence when they face the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
Lightning have won six of their previous seven games in a brilliant run to return to contention for the final playoff spot.
However, they are still ten points adrift of the eighth placed Ottawa Senators and will need to continue this run to have any chance of making it to the playoff rounds.
Tampa Bay will enter this game on the back of a shocking 6-3 victory over the Florida Panthers on Saturday.
The Panthers were completely decimated as Tampa Bay’s offence clicked into gear for a historic win.
Forward Martin St. Louis scored a hat trick in his milestone 900th National Hockey League (NHL) game and things could not have gone much better for Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay scored four times in the second period to take a 5-3 lead and completed the rout as St. Louis scored his third goal on the power play in the final period.
Tampa Bay coach Guy Boucher was proud of his team as they rebounded from a 2-1 overtime loss to return back to winning ways saying.
"That's just a tribute to the kind of people we have on the team," he said.
The coach further added:
"They're all unselfish and people who care about the group."
The Los Angeles Kings, on the other hand, are on a two game losing streak and have scored only once during those losses.
Kings lost both away ties, first against the St. Louis Blues and then against Carolina Hurricanes, as they continue on their six-game road trip, going for the third away tie.
Tampa Bay will be a tough assignment for the Kings whose offence has failed to shift into gear and forward Mike Richards believes that they have to fix that starting from Tuesday.
"The bottom line is that we're paid to score goals, and we're not doing it right now," Mike Richards, who has one score in his last 18 games, told the Kings' official website.
The Kings lost out 2-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes last time out as they failed to hold on to a one goal lead from the first period.
Los Angeles coach Darryl Sutter blamed the quick succession of games and exhaustion for the loss saying.
"It's not rocket science, We played last night and got here at two in the morning. They were pushing a little bit more because they had more."
He cannot make the same excuse tomorrow against Tampa Bay Lightning.
Tampa Bay will be favourites for the win and if they can beat Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick a couple of times will most probably run out victorious.
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