It's April 1st and the clock is winding down on the regular season. The Lightning have nine games left on the schedule to start their roadtrip. They currently hold the second place spot in the Atlantic Division, tied with the Florida Panthers at 91 points. The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the top spot for now, with 94 points but have played one additional game over both the Lightning and Panthers.

"I think we need two more wins to clinch, and we want to do that obviously as soon as we can,” said Lightning captain Victor Hedman. “But the sooner we do it, the more wins we have and the better the spot we have for trying to finish first. We've got nine games left, super important games, all of them. We're not focusing too much on what's going on around the league, but we know if we win most of the games, we have a good chance.”

The Lightning have always been a solid home team, and this season the story is no different. With a home record of 27-8-2, the goal for Tampa Bay is to earn home ice advantage. Their road record looks a bit different at 16-17-3.

"We've obviously seen Toronto and Florida for many years in a row,” said Hedman. “It doesn't really matter who's on the other side, but at the end of the day we want to get home ice. We've shown all year how good we are playing at home, so that's the main goal is to try and finish in one of those spots.”

The upcoming road trip includes the Islanders on Tuesday, a matchup against their Atlantic Division opponent Ottawa on Thursday, the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday and the New York Rangers on Monday. Once the Lightning return home, they’ll face Toronto one last time. Performing well on this roadtrip could help them overtake Toronto in the standings. 

The Lightning haven’t quite punched their ticket yet, but they could on Tuesday if they beat the Islanders in any fashion AND the Canadiens and Blue Jackets both lose. Either way, that's not exactly where their focus is at. 

"You never know when you're going to clinch or if we're going to clinch,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “The numbers say our chances are fairly good that we're going to get in, but to me, when you start worrying about what other teams are doing, you're really losing your focus on what your team should be doing.”

Here’s a look at the lines from Tuesday’s morning skate in New York:

Forwards

Jake Guentzel - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov

Brandon Hagel - Anthony Cirelli - Nick Paul

Oliver Bjorkstrand - Yanni Gourde - Gage Goncalves

Cam Atkinson - Zemgus Girgensons - Mitchell Chaffee

Defensemen

Victor Hedman - JJ Moser

Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak

Emil Lilleberg - Nick Perbix

Darren Raddysh

Goaltenders

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Jonas Johansson

Notes: Luke Glendening is absent for the birth of his child.