It never hurts to head into Las Vegas feeling good about yourself, something the Florida Panthers did after a pitstop in San Jose. The thing about Vegas is, no matter how good you feel coming off the plane,

The Tampa Bay Lightning face a difficult challenge ahead with two back-to-back contests in their upcoming four-game road trip.

The Tampa Bay Lightning return to Florida having received a little bit of everything on their three-game road trip, but now the attention turns to settling a score with a Western Conference club.

BOTTOM LINE: The Chicago Blackhawks enter the matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning as losers of three games in a row. Tampa Bay has a 26-19-3 record overall and a 15-6-1 record in home games. The Lightning have allowed 135 goals while scoring 170 for a +35 scoring differential.

The Tampa Bay Lightning visit the Boston Bruins after Nikita Kucherov scored two goals in the Lightning's 5-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Special teams and defensive responsibility served as the bedrock to the Tampa Bay Lightning's fine first half in the immediate post-Steven Stamkos era.

Cam Talbot stopped 28 shots for his second shutout of the season as the Detroit Red Wings beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0.

Robby Fabbri, Troy Terry and Leo Carlsson score for the Ducks, who fall to 1-3-1 on their six-game trip when Guentzel scores the only goal for either team in the shootout to hand them a 4-3 defeat.

Anton Lundell scored for Florida, which was playing its second game in as many nights after cruising to a 7-2 victory against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.

The Sharks now have six players on IR, tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the most in the league.

Not only has the job been an express route to becoming an NFL head coach — Dave Canales with the Panthers last year and Coen with the Jaguars on Friday — it comes with quarterback Baker Mayfield and stars at every turn. Regardless of who is calling the plays, the Bucs have plenty of playmakers.

Watch out for the Montreal Canadiens. This surprising team has made an impressive climb up the standings since mid-December. Before this push, the team had been struggling and seemed the last team that would ever become a legitimate playoff contender his season.