Tampa Bay Lightning at Pittsburgh Penguins: game preview
Tampa BayLightning2026-27: 2-1-0 · 4 pts · 2025-26: 50-26-6 · 106 pts · 5that
PittsburghPenguins2026-27: 2-1-0 · 4 pts · 2025-26: 41-25-16 · 98 pts · 10thEight points apart last season
Tampa Bay finished last season 5th in the league on 106 points. Pittsburgh finished 10th on 98.
Game-day prices arrive with the afternoon snapshot, about 4:30 PM ET on the day of the game.
Meeting number 132
Across 131 completed games, Pittsburgh lead the head-to-head 69-49-13.
Last 5 meetings
See all: Last 5 meetings →The table on each 2025-26 meeting night
League rank after that night's games; a longer bar is a higher place. On 4 Dec 2025, Tampa Bay were 6th in the league and Pittsburgh 7th. By 2 Apr 2026 it was 4th and 9th.
Tampa Bay out-attempted Pittsburgh 201 to 149
Every attempt from the last meetings, both teams shooting right.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Pittsburgh Penguins
Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh are level on chances, last 10 games
Shot quality both ways: expected goals weigh every unblocked attempt by its chance of scoring. Finishing above zero means more goals than the chances.
This season: 3 games for Tampa Bay, 3 for Pittsburgh. Small sample: early-season xG moves a lot from night to night.
Last 10 games: 10 games for Tampa Bay, 10 for Pittsburgh.
2025-26: 82 games for Tampa Bay, 82 for Pittsburgh.
Power play and penalty kill, season and series
This season's rates first, then 2025-26 and the last meetings between the two. Power-play chances are counted from the penalty log with coincidental minors cancelled; faceoffs are each club's wins over draws taken.
All bars share one scale · 0–100%SeasonLast meetings
Tampa Bay
Small samplePittsburgh
Small sampleSkaters to watch
Each club's top three forwards and defencemen by points this season, with 2025-26 one tap away.
Who has stopped this matchup
Save percentage in the last meetings by goalie. Starters are confirmed on game day.
Expected starter after their game on 13 Dec: a back-to-back depends on who plays that night.
Expected starter after their game on 12 Dec: a back-to-back depends on who plays that night.
Tampa Bay crease
TBL · 2026-27 Starter estimate from 12 Dec
No appearances against Pittsburgh in the last meetings.
Pittsburgh crease
PIT · 2026-27 Starter estimate from 12 Dec
No appearances against Tampa Bay in the last meetings.
Scoring rates point to about 6.6 goals
No total is posted yet: it arrives with the game-day prices. Until then, the scoring rates and the recent meetings set the range.
Goals in the last 5 meetings
Bar length is total goals, coloured by the winner.
Scoring rates
Tampa Bay2.672.333.542.82
Pittsburgh5.002.673.573.27Goals for and against per game. The estimate averages each team’s scoring with the other’s goals allowed, and leans on 2025-26 until a team has played 20 games.
6 on the injury lists
Tampa Bay · injuries
Pittsburgh · injuries
Latest moves
See all: Latest moves →Placed C Jansen Harkins on waivers.
Placed D Michael Callahan on waivers.
Placed D Michael Callahan, G Mads Sogaard Nielsenon, LD Maxim Groshev, LW Jakob Pelletier and C Nicholas Abruzzese on waivers.
Activated C/RW Benjamin Kindel from injured reserve. Placed C/LW David Gustafsson on waivers.
Assigned F Rutger McGroarty to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL).
Reinstated C Blake Lizotte from injured reserve.
Tampa Bay · 2026 draft
See all: Tampa Bay · 2026 draft →Pittsburgh · 2026 draft
See all: Pittsburgh · 2026 draft →
Updated after every final