Game 79: Tampa in NY Preview

Enemy blog: Lighthouse Hockey

The Lightning are playing the worst team in the league tonight.

The Isles sit with 59 points in last, Colorado with 64 and then the Bolts with 66. If you look for the next worse teams to round out the bottom 5 is the Kings (73) and the Thrashers (74) currently, but that changes by the day because there's a whole gaggle of teams around 75 point mark. But back to the Lightning, there's a bit of space between us and number 4 and 5.

So in the race to tank the season, which the Lightning are doing a good job at it, neither team wants these points. But aren't we really past tanking it? We've just stunk the season, and the way I see it, is we are not tanking at this point, we're just giving ourself a better draft pick order than Colorado. In order for us to pick before the Avs, they need to win at least 1 more game and take 1 more to OT in the final stretch, but we won't help our chances at all if we win this game.

For the Islanders, there's really enough of a point spread between the Isles and the Avs, so the two points won't really affect their spot. They are pretty much a lock to get first pick (as long as the lottery works in their favor) for Tavares. Now I know that I should be all for the team to play hard, I am, but winning is another story. We already got a point last night in that OT against NJ, we don't need two more. I really just want to give the team at this point of the season, the best chance at getting a good draft pick.

-The Lightning are missing half their roster, most importantly Lecavalier
-The Isles are missing Streit and Okposo
-If Stamkos nets a goal tonight, he sets a new rookie scoring record for the Lightning