The Toronto Maple Leafs and the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning meet Tuesday night, each coming off a loss they would prefer to forget.The Lightning, after a hard-fought 5-3 road win against the Boston Bruins on Saturday, were stunned 5-4 in a shootout to the lowly Detroit Red Wings on Sunday night.The Maple Leafs are coming off a 2-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Friday to complete a 0-2-1 West Coast trip during which they scored only three total goals.The teams have split their two meetings thus far, the Lightning winning 7-3 in Toronto on Oct. 10 and the Maple Leafs winning 4-3 in Tampa Bay on Feb. 25 to begin a three-game winning streak.The Lightning (43-20-6, 92 points) admitted that the physical game at Boston might have had an effect on them in Detroit."It's a lot of emotion and a lot of energy used (against the Bruins)," said Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who did not play Saturday but returned to the lineup Sunday after missing 14 games with a lower-body injury. "It might have showed a little bit in our play (Sunday). I don't think we were happy with our decision-making." On the night the Lightning had McDonagh back in the lineup, they had to play Sunday without defenseman Victor Hedman, who was restricted to about five minutes Saturday by a lower-body injury.Lightning coach Jon Cooper said Hedman might be available Tuesday, but termed his status as questionable. Cooper was impressed with the way his depleted defense played against the Bruins."Boston's an exceptional team so it's hard to contain those guys," Cooper said. "As a whole, especially in the second and third period, we defended hard, we were gapped, we didn't give them a ton of space." Particularly in Hedman's absence, McDonagh's return bolsters the defense."My legs felt good," McDonagh said after playing nearly 24 minutes Sunday. "Maybe a little sloppy with the puck, but all in all I am happy with how I felt injury-wise." The Maple Leafs (35-25-9, 79 points) picked up one point to go with their three goals on the three-game trip.Now the Maple Leafs play six of their next seven games at home, but they have had some problems there, too. They are 17-9-7 at home this season, and 7-5-2 there in 2020."We haven't played great (at home) for a while now," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters recently. "We have to be excited about a chance to play there, but recognize we have to find ways to play better on home ice. We're still looking for more consistency both in our efforts and our results." The Maple Leafs could soon have defenseman Morgan Rielly back in the lineup. He has missed 23 games with a broken foot.Defenseman Cody Ceci returned on Friday after missing 14 games with an ankle injury. Defenseman Jake Muzzin (broken knuckle) remains on the sideline."We're showing real signs of fatigue, in particular on defense, in guys we have asked a lot from," Keefe said. "Getting Ceci back is a positive step in that direction, but I just look at some of our other guys who are playing a lot of minutes and kind of in the wrong slots and it seems to be catching up a little bit to our group."Ceci's return is a positive step and Rielly's return is not too far away, we expect, and that's going to help our group and that in itself will give us some extra life." --Field Level Media
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