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Stanley Cup Final, Game 3: Lines, gamethread and how to watch

I don’t think I’d mind a full seven games of this.

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Tyler Johnson #9 of the Tampa Bay Lightning gets tripped up against Andrew Cogliano #11 of the Dallas Stars during the first period in Game Two of the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place on September 21, 2020 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Everyone gets one, as the Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning have each walked away with a win two games into their Cup Final series. A win tonight means just two more wins to Christmas — er, the Stanley Cup. That’s as good of a motivation as it gets, I think.

Here’s what you need to know going into tonight:

In Their Words

From SB Nation’s Raw Charge:

The biggest problem with Game 2 was the Lightning continued to take unnecessary penalties (oh, how I haven’t missed you), which allowed the Stars to claw their way back into it. Yanni Gourde’s retaliatory crosscheck for a hit on Blake Coleman was a prime example of what not to do for the rest of the playoffs.

The top line continued its strong play and it remains the one bright spot for a forward group that has otherwise been neutralized by the Stars defense. The Lightning need to find a way to get scoring from their other lines, because they shouldn’t have to rely on their big guns for production.

From SB Nation’s Defending Big D:

Going into Game 3, there are certainly concerns about the Stars’ penalty kill, but those can be dealt with by some time in the film room. More concerning is the disintegration of the Dallas shutdown line. Already missing Radek Faksa, Blake Comeau went down with a brutal hit in the neutral zone in Game 2, leaving Andrew Cogliano as the lone FCC survivor to play in the third period.

If both Faksa and Comeau end up “unfit to play” for Game 3, the Stars find themselves needing to reinvent a line to match up with the Lightning top line. It’s going to need to come out of pieces and parts of other lines. It’s one thing to pull in Jason Dickinson to replace an injured Faksa, but there just isn’t a combination of center/right winger to play with Cogliano that mirrors what the FCC line does.

Lines

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (via NHL.com)

Ondrej PalatBrayden PointNikita Kucherov
Alex KillornAnthony Cirelli — Tyler Johnson
Barclay GoodrowYanni GourdeBlake Coleman
Pat MaroonCedric PaquetteCarter Verhaeghe

Victor Hedman — Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonaghKevin Shattenkirk
Mikhail Sergachev — Erik Cernak

Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney

Expected Scratches: Mathieu Joseph, Mitchell Stephens, Alexander Volkov, Braydon Coburn, Scott Wedgewood, Luke Schenn, Zach Bogosian

Unfit to Play: Steven Stamkos

DALLAS STARS (via NHL.com)

Jamie BennTyler SeguinAlexander Radulov
Mattias JanmarkJoe PavelskiDenis Gurianov
Joel KivirantaRoope HintzCorey Perry
Andrew Cogliano — Jason DickinsonBlake Comeau

Esa LindellJohn Klingberg
Jamie OleksiakMiro Heiskanen
Andrej SekeraJoel Hanley

Anton Khudobin
Jake Oettinger

Expected Scratches: Nick Caamano, Ty Dellandrea, Jason Robertson, Gavin Bayreuther, Thomas Harley, Landon Bow, Justin Dowling, Taylor Fedun

Unfit to Play: Stephen Johns, Ben Bishop, Radek Faksa

How to Watch

Puck Drop: 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET

Location: Rogers Place, Edmonton, AB

Broadcast/Streaming: NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS, FuboTV

Series Schedule

Game 1: Stars 4, Lightning 1
Game 2: Stars 2, Lightning 3
Game 3: Wednesday, Sept. 23, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET
Game 4: Friday, Sept. 25, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET
Game 5: Saturday, Sept. 26, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET
Game 6: Monday, Sept. 28, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET
Game 7: Wednesday, Sept. 30, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET