See, I’m not going to mislead anybody. This see is being composed before the Lightning take on the L.A. Lords on Saturday night. On consecutive game nights, the start times of 10:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. left little time for writing a preview. Therefore, we are either celebrating the Lightning’s six-game winning streak, which is the longest of the season, or hoping for a win to end the road trip with a 4-1 record. Regardless, Tampa Bay has continued to score points and maintain their position in the playoff race, so these late-night games weren’t wasted. The end of the season games are not in that frame of mind for the very much refreshed Ducks (who haven’t played since their 4-0 win over the Blackhawks on Thursday). They are looking to the future at 24-43-3, hoping to acquire additional elite talent in the summer draft. Indeed, even with their mid-season exchange of 21-year-old Jamie Drysdale, they actually have a pleasant center of children getting playing time this season. Their main community, Leo Carlsson is only 19. Their number-two focus, Bricklayer McTavish is only 21 and their third sets of defensemen comprises of 23-year-old Jackson LaCombe and 20-year-old Pavel Mintyukov. They additionally may be getting their most astonishing player, Trevor Zegras (who is 23} back this evening. So many teenagers!
In this way, while they may be piling up the misfortunes, they’re basically doing it with the center of their future group. They have sprinkled in certain veterans to assist the children with finding out about hockey. Our old friend Alex Killorn is one of those graybeards. It hasn’t been the season Executioner has expected since marking his enormous free-specialist bargain the previous summer as wounds have hampered his adequacy. At the point when he’s been in the line-up, he’s created as he has 14 objectives and 16 aids 51 games. Simply a sad truth he’s just played in 51 games.One more seasoned veteran has been an unexpected, yet wonderful treat for them. Prior to the previous season, the Ducks signed Frank Vatrano to a three-year contract. In 2022–23, Vatrano had a nice season for them, scoring 22 goals. The 30-year-old has improved upon that this year and now has 30 goals for the first time in his career. Alongside his profession high 21 helps, his 51 focuses drives the Ducks in scoring this year. It’s somewhat of an unexpected that he didn’t get moved at the cutoff time as his $3.65 million cap hit is genuinely sensible for a 30-objective scorer. One more veteran who wasn’t moved at the cutoff time is goaltender John Gibson. It hasn’t been an extraordinary season for the 193-game champ as he’s posted an .894 SV%, 3.40 GAA, and a 1.79 GSAx. Truly, that last number is really amazing considering the Ducks are surrendering 31.2 scoring chances each hour of play this season. Just the San Jose Sharks have allowed up more high-risk opportunities than Anaheim’s 13.8 each hour. We are implying that the Bolts ought to have a few more high-quality chances to score than they did against the Kings (I am assuming that it was a close, defensive effort by Los Angeles). The Lightning will not have an easy game against the Ducks, despite their subpar record, and they will need to be completely engaged if they want to end this trip on a high note.
