Welcome back to NHL Predictions. Each day, Last Word on Hockey takes a look at the games that are scheduled and then offers insight and analysis to help predict who will be victorious in head-to-head matchups.

Here are three reasons to like the Lightning’s new-look power play. Thursday’s moves were transformative, because the personnel and positional changes made it difficult to tell which was the top unit and which was the second. Point men Victor Hedman and Darren Raddysh switched units, with Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel matched with Raddysh.

Although the Ducks beat the Lightning by three goals on Jan. 5, they have, more recently, been battered on their season-long road trip. The Ducks sandwiched the only win on a journey that began with two lopsided losses between a pair of shutouts by their opponents.

Jake Guentzel scored the only shootout goal as the Tampa Bay Lightning earned a 4-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night. Guentzel, who had a goal in regulation, beat Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal (34 saves) between the pads to open the shootout.

Anaheim opened the scoring 6:03 into the game on a redirection by forward Troy Terry, but the Lightning tied the score eight minutes later on the power play. Hedman got the puck at the left point and fed forward Brandon Hagel in the right corner, where the latter passed the puck to Anthony Cirelli at the back post for a tap-in and a tie game.

Tampa Bay Lightning (24-16-3, in the Atlantic Division) Tampa, Florida; Saturday, 7 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: The Tampa Bay Lightning host the Detroit Red Wings after the Lightning beat the Anaheim Ducks ... TOP PERFORMERS: Nikita Kucherov has 20 goals and ...

The Tampa Bay Lightning got back in the win column on Thursday night, defeating the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 in a shootout at AMALIE Arena to earn a season series split with their Western Conference opponent. Jake Guentzel scored the lone goal in the three-round shootout.

Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy turned away shots by Anaheim forward Mason McTavish and Ducks leading scorer Troy Terry in the shootout to allow Tampa Bay to win its 24th game of the season, leaving the Lightning in sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

The Tampa Bay Lightning returned home to host the Anaheim Ducks for a rematch ... the tie on the power play from a cross-ice feed by Nikita Kucherov to start off the second period.

In its trio of road tilts (1-1-1), the Lightning's results spanned the hockey gamut -- an overtime loss in New Jersey plus handing out a rout in Pittsburgh and being on the receiving end of one in Boston. Anaheim arrives for the fifth game of its East Coast journey -- a bumpy flight so far from the Ducks' perspective.

The Winnipeg Jets lead the NHL power rankings for the first time since November, but it's tight at the top. Plus, the blockbuster Rantanen trade has another big winner.

Welcome, RotoBallers! My name is Brandon, and I'll be writing both The First-Serve and The Kick-Off for tennis and soccer. It is the return of the NHL season, which means it's time to sharpen our skills and partake in NHL DFS!