The Tampa Bay Lightning kicked off one of their most important road trips this season with a 4-2 win over the New York Islanders, one of the teams chasing them in the Wild Card race. Nick Paul, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, and Luke Glendening scored for the Bolts while Andrei Vasilevskiy turned aside 32 of the 34 shots he faced.
With some of their defenders a bit questionable for the game, the Lightning went with an 11/7 rotation as newcomer Max Crozier drew into the line-up while Cole Koepke, Austin Watson, and Tanner Jeannot were scratched among the forwards.