reporting<\/a> that Max Crozier will be back in the line-up after missing 26 games with an injury. That gives Coach Cooper another option if he wants to go with an 11\/7 rotation and possibly rest a couple of forwards. <\/p>\nWill Nikita Kucherov play? It\u2019s possible. He\u2019s trailing Connor McDavid by four points in the Art Ross race, and it\u2019s not out of the realm of possibility he could put up a five-point night. After all, he has two already this season (along with seven (!) four-point games). As one of the fiercest competitors in the league, the Lightning might have to steal his skates to keep him out of a game he\u2019s healthy enough to play. <\/p>\n
One line that is probably going to play, and get a lot of ice time, is the Nick Paul \u2013 Yanni Gourde \u2013 Zemguer Girgensons line. They played 12:25 together against the Red Wings and the Lightning had a 12-9 edge in shot attempts and 5-1 advantage in scoring chances with an 86.11% expected goal share. Most of that ice time came against the Dylan Larkin line, which was Detroit\u2019s top line. Could they be the trio that gets the first assignment against the Nick Suzuki line in the playoffs? Tonight could be a trial run for that possibility. <\/p>\n
There seemed to be a little sense of relief after the win against the Red Wings on Monday. Coach Cooper was taking questions from children in the post-game presser, J.J. Moser was shirtless and asking Erik Cernak the tough questions:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776270310_914_image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
After what has been a trying, but successful season, it was good to see a little levity in the clubhouse. Tonight should have a bit of a celebratory feel to it. It\u2019s fan appreciation night, there is nothing on the line, and they can relax a little before the real stress begins. <\/p>\n
Potential Lines<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Lightning<\/p>\n
Forwards:<\/p>\n
Gage GoncalvesBrayden PointNikita KucherovOliver BjorkstrandAnthony CirelliJake GuentzelNick PaulYanni GourdeZemgus GirgensonsCorey PerryConor GeekieScott Sabourin<\/p>\n
Defense:<\/p>\n
J.J. MoserDarren Raddysh (?)Ryan McDonaghErik CernakCharle-Edouard D\u2019AstousEmil LillebergMax Crozier<\/p>\n
Goaltenders:<\/p>\n
Andrei VasilevskiyBrandon Halverson<\/p>\n
New York Rangers<\/p>\n
Forwards:<\/p>\n
Gabriel PerreaultMika ZibanejadAlexis LafreniereTye KartyeJ.T. MillerConor ShearyWill CuylleVincent TrocheckJonny BrodzinskiAdam SykoraNoah LabaJaroslav Chmelar<\/p>\n
Defense:<\/p>\n
Vladislav GavrikovAdam FoxDrew FortescueBraden SchneiderMatthew RobertsonWill Borgen<\/p>\n
Goaltenders:<\/p>\n
Igor ShesterkinJonathan Quick<\/p>\n
*The Lightning\u2019s lone All-Star was Wendel Clark. Future Bolts Mark Recchi, Darryl Sydor, Nikolai Khabibulin, and Mattias Ohlund were also there. As was former Lightning Roman Hamrlik, who had been traded to Edmonton a couple of seasons earlier. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Game Eighty-Two : New York Rangers (33-39-9) at Tampa Bay Lightning (50-25-6) Time: 7:00 PM EST Location: Benchmark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-232914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}