Montreal travels to play Kucherov and the Lightning

Montreal Canadiens (31-28-9, fifth in the Atlantic Division) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (41-20-5, second in the Atlantic Division)

Tampa, Florida; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Nikita Kucherov leads Tampa Bay into a matchup against Montreal. He currently ranks seventh in the NHL with 80 points, scoring 31 goals and recording 49 assists.

The Lightning are 26-11-2 in Eastern Conference games. Tampa Bay leads the league shooting 11.1% and averaging 3.5 goals on 31.2 shots per game.

The Canadiens are 9-11-2 against division opponents. Montreal has converted on 18.5% of power-play opportunities, recording 33 power-play goals.

Tampa Bay took down Montreal 2-1 in the last meeting between these teams on Jan. 2.

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TOP PERFORMERS: Kucherov leads the Lightning with 49 assists and has recorded 80 points this season. Steven Stamkos has totalled 7 points over the last 10 games for Tampa Bay.

Tomas Tatar has collected 61 total points while scoring 22 goals and totalling 39 assists for the Canadiens. Max Domi has four goals and four assists over the last 10 games for Montreal.

LAST 10 GAMES: Canadiens: 4-4-2, averaging three goals, 4.2 assists, 3.5 penalties and 8.4 penalty minutes while giving up three goals per game with a .899 save percentage.

Lightning: 5-5-0, averaging three goals, 5.3 assists, five penalties and 12.7 penalty minutes while giving up 3.3 goals per game with a .892 save percentage.

INJURIES: Lightning: Steven Stamkos: out (core muscle).

Canadiens: Jonathan Drouin: day to day (ankle), Tomas Tatar: day to day (upper-body).

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.