Playoffs? Believe it as Lightning now tied for final spot in Eastern Conference

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
March 14, 2017

When the NHL trade deadline passed on March 2, many wondered if Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman was raising the white flag on the season.

Turns out, he may have actually been flapping the green flag, because it’s been go-go-go ever since.

Following Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime victory in Ottawa, Tampa Bay is now tied for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference standings with the New York Islanders while sitting three points behind the Boston Bruins for third in the Atlantic Division standings.

The Lightning sit one point ahead of Toronto, which comes to Tampa on Thursday.

Victor Hedman scored his third overtime goal of the season, tying Dan Boyle for most by a defenseman in one season in franchise history, converting a cross-ice pass from Ondrej Palat with 55 seconds left in overtime to lift the Lightning to a fourth consecutive victory.

Now, Tampa Bay finds itself in a spot few could have predicted a month ago.

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The week of the trade deadline, the Lightning moved out three veteran players – Ben Bishop, Brian Boyle and Valtteri Filppula – and essentially wound up being the biggest trade deadline seller in the league. At the time the deadline passed at 3 p.m. on March 1, the Lightning sat in 11th place in the conference and five points out of the eighth spot and eight points behind the third spot in the Atlantic Division.

Since then, the Lightning have gone 6-1-1 to jump three spots and gain five points on the playoff pack.

”Those boys, man are they battling hard,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s been a lot of fun to be behind the bench with these guys.’’

The charge up the standings happened before the trade deadline as Tampa Bay is 12-2-3 in the past 17 games. But when Bishop, Boyle and Fillpula were dealt, it looked as if the season was given up on.

Those in the locker room, however, have had other ideas. And it’s been quite a variety of players coming through the doors since then to bring up an odd combination of experienced youth coming together with blissful contributors.

”I think it goes a little bit farther than that in the sense that we’ve played these games before,’’ Cooper said. “Maybe not so much the lineup we had in tonight, but there’s a lot of playoff savviness that’s in that locker room. But what’s really impressed me is everybody has just come together as a group and there’s just kind of that never-die attitude that’s going in there. Everybody’s contributing, whether it’s a guy winning a face-off or blocking a shot or scoring the big goal.

“But a lot of those guys that have been down that road with us the last couple years, it’s almost like they’re going to lead the way and the new guys coming up aren’t going to let them down. That’s kind of working for us.’’

That was the case on Tuesday as rookie Brayden Point, making the jump straight from junior to the NHL, had the lone goal in regulation, scoring early in the first period. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, now the No. 1 netminder, finished with 31 saves – including all 14 in the opening period – to improve to 6-0-1 since Bishop was traded.

Then there was the winning goal, with Hedman stealing the puck off the stick of Erik Karlsson in the Tampa Bay zone and sent Palat up ice. Hedman would continue to drive up ice and cut across to the left post to push in a perfect pass from Palat to pick up the victory.

Now, it sets up quite the improbable stretch run for Tampa Bay with 13 games left in the regular season.

”I’ve got to be honest, this is kind of fun,’’ Cooper said. “I’d much rather have a little bit of a cushion where some other teams are sitting, but the competitive nature in you, this is going to be a lot of fun down the stretch.’’

Postgame notes: C Vladislav Namestnikov missed Tuesday’s game with a lower body injury. Namestnikov, who was injured Thursday against Minnesota, was in the lineup Monday at New York but aggravated the injury late in the second period against the Rangers and missed the third period. … D Luke Witkowski returned to the lineup on the fourth line. … RW Adam Erne registered seven hits. … RW Yanni Gourde played a career high 20 minutes, 20 seconds. … Tamap Bay finished with 75 shot attempts. … The Lightning killed off an Ottawa power play in the final two minutes of regulation, extending a streak of 13 consecutive penalty kills in the past five games.

My three stars:
1.Lightning D Victor Hedman – Winning OT goal, 10 shot attempts

2.Senators G Mike Condon – Stole a point for Ottawa stopping 35 shots

3.Lightning LW Ondej Palat – Assist, plus-2, four shots

Full game highlights from NHL.com

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