Brayden Point’s likely return among Lightning storylines in Pittsburgh

The Lightning are coming off their best back-to-back games of the season and could get a boost from one of their top players returning as they hit the road for a brief two-game trip.

Before boarding a flight to Pittsburgh, the Lightning practiced Monday morning at Amalie Arena. Top line center Brayden Point was a full participant in all drills, a strong indication that he could play Tuesday against the Penguins. He has been sidelined by a lower-body injury since he played just six shifts in a road loss to Winnipeg on Nov. 3.

Having Point back would make the Lightning’s top line and top power-play unit whole. And the fact that the Lightning — 9-6-1, 19 points, third place in the Atlantic entering Monday — are coming off their best two games of 60-minute hockey against two of the league’s best teams can only build critical early-season confidence.

In the Lightning’s just-completed three-game homestand, they allowed only two regulation goals total, showing a commitment to managing the puck and avoiding the turnovers that earlier in the season led to costly scoring chances.

“Our team, I like how we’ve progressed,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We are a better team when Brayden Point’s in the lineup, but it’s good to be able to prove to yourself that when some guys leave the lineup, you can still be productive and win games.”

Here are three things to watch heading into the Lightning’s game Tuesday in Pittsburgh:

Point differential

During Monday’s practice, Point participated in all drills, including special teams work that saw him in a different spot on the Lightning’s top power-play unit. Point typically is in the bumper position, where he can find space in front of the net and take Nikita Kucherov’s feeds from the right-side halfwall and create scoring chances.

But this time he was positioned farther from Kucherov on the left-circle side, where the Lightning have struggled to find a replacement for longtime fixture Steven Stamkos. Brandon Hagel and Mitchell Chaffee swapped reps in the bumper spot.

Whether Point makes that switch in a game remains to be seen, but he will certainly be flanked by Jake Guentzel and Kucherov on a top line that’s been spectacular. Before Point’s injury, he scored eight goals, including a team-high five on the power play, and 13 points in 12 games.

Cooper said a final decision on Point won’t be made until after Tuesday’s skate in Pittsburgh, which is understandable given Point appears to have been dealing with a leg injury.

“We’ll zip around in the morning skate (Tuesday),” Cooper said. “But I hope he’s available. ... He’s trending in the right direction.”

Kucherov closing in on 900

When Stamkos was reaching milestone scoring marks a few years ago, he’d always joke that his Lightning franchise records would be short-lived because Kucherov already was within reach of all of them.

And with his next point, Kucherov can become not only the fastest Lightning player to reach 900 points, but the 23rd quickest in NHL history. Kucherov will play in his 742nd career game Tuesday; Michel Goulet currently sits in 23rd place, reaching 900 points in 751 games.

Kucherov will have reached 900 quicker than legends such as Mark Messier (758), Evgeni Malkin (762), Alex Ovechkin (764), Teemu Selanne (772) and even the player he lost the Hart Trophy to last season, Nathan MacKinnon (792).

Stamkos holds the Lightning record for quickest to 900 points, reaching the milestone in 869 games. He is the franchise’s all-time leading scorer in goals (555) and points (1,137). Marty St. Louis is the team’s leader in assists (588).

Kucherov, 31, enters Tuesday with 331 goals, 568 assists and 899 points.

Guentzel returns to Pittsburgh

Tuesday won’t be Jake Guentzel’s first trip back to Pittsburgh as an opponent; he played there in March in a Carolina sweater after the trade deadline deal that sent him to the Hurricanes. But for a player who spent the first eight years in Pittsburgh and quickly became a fan favorite, Guentzel knows this return to PPG Paints Arena won’t be any normal road game.

“Whenever you win in a spot, and you still have friends there — there’s a lot of guys I keep in touch with — it’s obviously fun to go back and see them,” said Guentzel, who won a Stanley Cup in his rookie season with the Pens. “We have a lot of good memories together. It’s a good group of guys and it will be fun.”

Guentzel said his last trip to Pittsburgh allowed him to turn the page on his career there.

“Off the deadline there, it was kind of quick,” Guentzel said. “But it was just nice to kind of walk away and just move on after that. So it’s a little different now because you can kind of put it behind you.”

Guentzel has just 16 games in a Lightning uniform, but has shown the flexibility to click on multiple lines. He leads all forwards with a plus-10 and had two goals and four points in the past two games, meshing well on a revamped second line centered by Nick Paul.