'Canes hope to take home cookin' on road to Tampa (Dec 31, 2016)
TAMPA, Fla. -- Carolina enjoys a strong home-ice advantage.
The road, however, has not been quite as kind.
So the Hurricanes hope to jump on a jittery Tampa Bay Lightning team prone to falling behind in order to turn around some road woes.
Carolina extended its home point streak to 11 games (10-0-1) and improved to 11-3-1 at PNC Arena this season after beat Chicago on Friday. Away from PNC, though, the Hurricanes have won just five of 20 games this season with a 5-9-6 record.
With a trip to Tampa for a New Year's Eve meeting against the Lightning, Carolina hopes to carry over the home vibe at Amalie Arena.
"We are gaining confidence, we've done that the last little while and we are kind of firing on all cylinders at home," said center Jay McClement, who had the game-winning goal against Chicago on Friday. "We just need to continue to do that on the road."
The task won't be easy for Carolina, which remains without defenseman Justin Faulk and then lost forward Elias Lindholm to an undisclosed upper-body injury during Friday's victory against the Blackhawks.
"That's where your depth comes in to play and you need guys to step in and fill in the holes," Carolina goaltender Cam Ward said. "Those are key injuries, guys that are very important to our hockey club but we have confidence in the guys that have to step in. They work extremely hard off the ice take care of themselves and wait for an opportunity like this.
The Lightning are not one to feel sorry for another team dealing with injuries. Tampa Bay has now played more than a month without captain Steven Stamkos due to surgery for a partially torn meniscus and continues to deal with the loss of 2016 Vezina Trophy finalist goaltender Ben Bishop. In total the Lightning have endured 93 man games lost to injury on the season.
That could be a factor in some of the Lightning's sloppy play over the past month, prone to falling behind, which Tampa Bay has done in allowing the opening goal of the game in 24-of-37 games this season.
"We can't go losing (at the start) of every game," said left wing Ondrej Palat, who has two goals in two games since returning from injury. "We need to do something about our starts."
With Bishop out until at least the middle of January, Tampa Bay will continue to rely on former first-round draft pick Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has started all four games since Bishop was lost on Dec. 20 with an undisclosed lower-body injury. While Vasilevskiy is 2-1-1 since assuming the No. 1 role -- all four games have come in a back-to-back situation -- his .884 save percentage and 3.09 goals against average need to improve to keep the Lightning in the playoff race.
"Right now it's been tough for me because I've struggled a bit the past couple of games," Vasilevskiy said. "The team has played well and I've just given up some stupid goals on my mistakes and that's why we lost a couple of games. But, things happen and I'll keep working."
