Golden Knights face NHL’s best in Tampa Bay Lightning

In their brief 32-game existence, the Golden Knights have met — and overcome — some big challenges.

On Tuesday, they face their biggest test to date.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, the NHL’s best team, is in town. The Lightning can score. They can play defense. They have superstar players in Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov. They are well-coached by Jon Cooper.

Certainly, they have set the bar high for the rest of the league.

For the Knights, this is the level of opponent you want to play to show you’re serious about contending for a championship.

“It’s going to be fun to play that game,” Knights coach Gerard Gallant said Monday. “They play a fast game. I talk about our team playing fast, but this is probably the quickest and fastest team in the league. They play an aggressive forechecking game and this year they’re playing better defensively, too. Their goaltending has been excellent all year and they’re at the top of their game.”

Along with the Lightning, the Knights have been one of the great stories in the NHL in the first half of the season. With Christmas break approaching, the Knights are in second place in the Pacific Division with a 21-9-2 record and 44 points. They were the fastest first-year team to reach 20 wins in league history and have won the hearts of fans with their gritty play and resiliency.

Marc-Andre Fleury, who won an emotional game on Thursday against his former team, the Penguins, returns to the net on Tuesday. He knows what to expect from the Lightning.

“It’s going to be a good challenge,” Fleury said. “Obviously, they’re the top scoring team in the league. For me, it’s important I focus on the shooter and trust my teammates to cover for me, too.”

Center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said the Knights better be responsible in all three zones and not turn over the puck.

“They have a lot of skilled players and it’s about limiting their opportunities,” Bellemare said. “I think we’ve done a good job of that with the top teams so far.

“It doesn’t matter which line we have on the ice. We’ve been doing the job against the other team’s top players.”

Defenseman Colin Miller said the Knights aren’t likely to abandon their style of play for one game.

“I think we want to play our game and put pressure on them in their own end,” he said. “It’ll be our best test of the year. You’ve just got to be aware. They’ve got a lot of speed, so if our gaps aren’t sharp and we don’t have five guys defending we can be in trouble.”

Special teams could also be key on Tuesday. The Lightning are the NHL’s best on the power play, converting 27.4 percent of the time, but are only middle of the pack on the penalty kill, ranking 15th among the NHL’s 31 teams at 81.4 percent.

The Knights, who are 21st in power play percentage (17.4 percent) and rank 23rd on the penalty kill (79.2 percent), were 0 for 4 with the man advantage Sunday against Florida.

“We’ve done a pretty good job lately limiting our penalties,” Gallant said. “We don’t take a lot of penalties. But when we do, you want to kill it off.”

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.