Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Tampa Bay Lightning (25-12-4, 54 points) and Montreal Canadiens (26-11-2, 54 points) take the ice for the second of five meetings this season live from the Bell Centre in Montreal. The game can be live streamed here. Tampa Bay fans can hear all of the action on WDAE 620 while Montreal fans can do the same on TSN 690.
Tampa Bay has won five of its last six games and closes out a four-match road trip it is 2-1 on while Montreal has won six straight contests and comes home for five matches after a perfect 5-0 road trip.
The Lightning trounced the Canadiens 7-1 the first time these two teams met on Oct. 13.
Montreal holds the very top spot in the Atlantic Division, but Tampa Bay is nipping at its heels in second place.
The Lightning are coming off of a 4-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday and return to the Bell Centre for the first time since being swept out of the playoffs last spring.
"I can't believe it's been eight-plus months since we've been here," coach Jon Cooper said per NHL.com. "It's clearly negative memories just because of the way the games turned out and the series turned out. I don't believe we played poorly here, I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win both our games here."
Lightning forward Tyler Johnson is third in the NHL with 43 points and fifth in the league with 28 assists. Johnson is tied with teammate Nikita Kucherov (17-22--39) with an NHL-best plus-26 rating thus far this season while Ondrej Palat (9-21--30) is tied for second in the league at plus-22.
Steven Stamkos is fourth in the NHL with 21 goals thus far this season while he is second on the Lightning with 39 points.
The Canadiens are coming off of a 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday and are looking to avenge the loss to the Lightning earlier in the year.
"They were really prepared and motivated to face us and they completely deserved their win when we played them," Montreal coach Michel Therrien told NHL.com. "But one thing is for sure, we're capable of playing much better than we did at the beginning of the season against the Lightning."
Max Pacioretty paces the Canadiens with 31 points off of 16 goals and 15 assists and is third in the league with a plus-20 rating. Alex Galchenyuk (10 markers, 17 helpers) and P.K. Subban (eight goals, 19 assists) are tied for second on the team with 27 points.
In net, Montreal turns to Carey Price and he is tied for second in the NHL with 22 wins while ranking fifth in the league with a 2.14 goals-against average and tied for fourth with a .929 save percentage.
Tampa Bay counters with Ben Bishop and he is 19-6-2 thus far this season with a 2.37 GAA and a .911 save percentage.
Two division rivals clash in a big game when the Lightning visit the Canadiens live tonight from the Bell Centre in Montreal.
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