ScoresandStats.com Latest Sports Previews

Tampa Bay is known for volume scoring, but defense and structure carried them to the top of the Atlantic. The Lightning have won 12 of 15 and own one of the league’s best form stretches entering Wednesday’s home date with Calgary. Their start was slow. They opened 1-5-1, played loose in transition and left Andrei Vasilevskiy exposed. Their posture is different now. They protect the slot. They control pace in the neutral zone. They have tightened angles and eliminated odd-man breaks. Jon Cooper called it work without the puck. Their buy-in shows in the results. Vasilevskiy posted his 41st career shutout Monday in a 3-0 win against Philadelphia. He tracked clean sightlines. His rebound control was sharp. His defenders boxed

New Jersey owns the NHL’s best home environment. The Devils are 8-0-1 at Prudential Center and can tie a franchise record with another point. They beat Detroit 4-3 Monday behind Jacob Markstrom’s best outing in weeks. He stopped 32 shots and settled a team that had dropped three straight on the road. New Jersey needed the reset. Their structure tightened. Their forecheck produced turnovers. They attacked early with a three-goal first period. Cody Glass returned and scored. Their bench had more pace and fewer gaps between forwards and defense. St. Louis finishes a five-game Eastern swing. The Blues are 1-1-2 so far and still searching for consistent offense. They scored nine goals across their last five games. Coach Jim Montgomery

Buffalo finds traction at last. The Sabres have won four of five, including Sunday’s sharp 4-1 effort against Carolina. Rasmus Dahlin said that performance is their “bare minimum.” Buffalo skated with pace, defended well and stayed connected for a full 60 minutes. They need that same standard on the road, where they are 1-5-2. Tage Thompson enters with a six-game goal streak. His speed and shot volume are back. He leads Buffalo with 12 goals and shares the team scoring lead with Alex Tuch at 21 points. The Sabres blocked 21 shots in their win over Carolina and controlled the slot well, two habits they need to repeat. Pittsburgh continues to stumble. The Penguins are 2-4-3 in November. They dropped

This is the final meeting of the regular season between two teams separated by two points in the Eastern Conference race. New York enters on a surge. Boston enters in a slump. Both have been off since Sunday. The Islanders edged Seattle 1-0 in a shootout. David Rittich was sharp, and Kyle Palmieri delivered the winner. Bo Horvat extended the shootout with a bar-down conversion. New York tied a franchise record with six wins on its seven-game road trip, then avoided a slow start to their homestand with Sunday’s tight win. Boston dropped a 3-1 decision to San Jose, their fourth loss in six. They have not led once in any of their last four defeats. The bigger issue is