Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, the Tampa Bay Lightning (19-9-3, 41 points) and Pittsburgh Penguins (19-6-4, 42 points) face-off for the first of three meetings this season live from the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. The game can be live streamed for free here. Tampa Bay fans can hear all of the action on WDAE 620 while Pittsburgh fans can do the same on 105.9 WXDX.
Tampa Bay has lost three of its last four and plays the second match of a five-game road trip while Pittsburgh has dropped two of three and opens up a three-game homestand.
This is a battle of two first place teams as the Lightning own the top spot in the Atlantic Division while the Penguins sit atop the Metropolitan Division.
The Penguins are coming off of a 4-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday and will be without captain Sidney Crosby, who is out with the mumps.
"It's just weird," forward Brandon Sutter said via NHL.com. "He had a few things going on last week, and when you saw him you knew something was up. But like [team doctor Dharmesh Vyas] said, he went through the test before and didn't show anything. Just kind of a weird series of events."
Crosby is tied for the NHL lead with 26 assists and ranks fourth with 35 points. Evgeni Malkin is fourth in the NHL with 15 goals and leads Pittsburgh with 36 points thus far this season.
The Lightning are coming off fo a 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Saturday, but the team has been able to avoid the mumps outbreak that is running through the NHL.
"It's pretty crazy for it to last this long," captain Steven Stamkos told NHL.com. "You just hope we can do a good job of trying to contain it but I don't really know much about it. So I think it's just hope and pray that we don't get it. ... I'm not a doctor. We're fortunate it hasn't hit any of our players yet."
Stamkos is tied for third in the NHL with 17 goals and ranks fifth in the league with a Lightning-best 34 points. Tyler Johnson is second on the team with 30 points off of nine goals and 21 assists while Nikita Kucherov has found the back of the net 11 times and added 15 helpers for 26 points.
Johnson (plus-17) and Kucherov (plus-16) rank tied for second and in sole possession of third in the NHL in plus-minus thus far this season.
In net, the Tampa Bay is slated to turn to Ben Bishop and he is 16-6-2 with a 2.34 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage. His 16 wins rank tied for second in the NHL.
Pittsburgh is expected to counter with Marc-Andre Fleury in the crease and he is tied for second in the league with 16 victories while ranking fifth in the league with a 2.10 GAA and adding a .926 save percentage.
Two of the Eastern Conference's best teams collide when the puck drops on the Lightning and Penguins tonight at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.
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