Tampa Bay will play three critical Atlantic Division games before heading into the two week layoff
These final games before the 2025 4 Nations Face-off break hold a similar feeling to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for many stakeholders in the Tampa Bay Lightning locker room.
Tampa Bay on Tuesday won a 4-3 game over the Ottawa Senators, a team they’ll host again on Thursday at AMALIE Arena before taking to the sky for an Atlantic Division back-to-back which begins in Detroit on Saturday and culminates with a 1 p.m. matinee in Montreal on Sunday.
All four of the team’s games heading into the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off break bear weight, particularly since they come against opponents in a crowded divisional race.
The Lightning sat just one standings point outside of a wild card spot prior to Tuesday’s game and four points shy of the Senators for the third-place spot in the Atlantic Division. After Tuesday, the Lightning were back in playoff position and only two points back of Ottawa.
“We've gotta take it as a playoff series here,” Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh said after Tuesday’s morning skate. “And we’ve got to start with tonight and just take it for what it is.”
Tampa Bay lost their first game against Ottawa on Oct. 19, falling 5-4 despite a two-point night from leading scorer Nikita Kucherov.
That was the Lightning’s fourth game of the season. Now nearly 50 games later, the team faces a week of four division games with ground to cover—the Lightning are 4-9-0 against the Atlantic Division this season.
Ottawa holds the third playoff spot in the division with a 29-21-4 record. They entered Tuesday’s game against Tampa Bay on a five-game win streak following a 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators on Monday.
Lightning forward Cam Atkinson also compared this final stretch before the NHL pauses for international competition to the playoffs.
“We haven't played these guys since the start of the season,” he said of the two-game series against Ottawa. “They’re playing really well, and it's kind of like a little playoff segment, and that's how we have to approach this game and be on top of it.”
Tampa Bay’s weekend will also be filled with hockey, as they visit a Detroit Red Wings team on Saturday that has won 15 of its last 20 games since naming Todd McLellan head coach in late December. Detroit has won seven straight games.
The Lightning follow that with a matchup against Montreal, a team that is five points back of Tampa Bay and also pushing for a playoff appearance.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper said this weekend that his team knows what lies ahead this week, and he feels they are ready for gut-check time.
“This is four games of our playoff destiny. You can’t sit here and say right now it’s in the balance, but do you want to make it a little easier on yourself or a little harder,” Cooper said in his postgame press conference after Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Islanders. “And all the teams we’re bunched around are staring us right in the face the next four games.”
Even after getting back into the win column on Tuesday, the Lightning know they still have work to do.
"I feel like every single game right now, it's close to playoff hockey. The standings are really tight. You're trying to get as many points as you can to kind of jump away from those teams,” Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak said this weekend. “I think those next four games are going to be important to us, and we're gonna do our best.”
