Tampa Bay Lightning build a snowman in Sunrise

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
October 30, 2017

The last Lightning visit to Sunrise proved to be a wakeup call.

The second visit felt like wild winter ride through the mountainside. By the time the journey ended on Monday, Tampa Bay built a snowman.

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Steven Stamkos had two goals, Nikita Kucherov notched his league-leading 13th of the season while 13 different players found the scoresheet, including seven multi-point efforts, as Tampa Bay closed out the best opening month in franchise history with an 8-5 victory at BB&T Center.

The Lightning end the month with a 10-2-1 record, the most victories and points in October. The 10 victories is tied for second most of any month in franchise history, one short of the record of 11 set in January of 2004.

Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy won his ninth consecutive game, setting a franchise record for most consecutive victories by a goaltender. Note: The team recognizes John Grahame has having won nine consecutive games, but he had a relief appearance in the middle of that stretch

There was so much going on in this game, let’s examine a few things that took place and break them down a little bit instead of trying to tell you the sequence of events, which saw Tampa Bay lose leads of 2-0 and 3-1 before pulling away.

Let’s start with the play of the second line – Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat and Yanni Gourde. They play with the grit and determination of a fourth line, the checking ability of the third line and the skill of the top line. It was all on display on Monday. The trio each finished with a goal and an assist apiece and combined for a plus-5 rating. They were tasked with trying to contain the top line centered by Aleksander Barkov, which is a difficult assignment, especially in a back-and-forth, offensive-heavy game.

* – Stamkos has his radar starting to dial in. With so much missed time over the past season-plus for the Lightning captain, he figured to need some time to get a feel back for some of the finer aspects of his game. Early on, even in practice, his one-timer from the left circle – a patented shot – look off. It wasn’t quite finding the target on a consistent basis. So he’s been taking extra time at the end of practice more than a few times, practicing his shot, taking feeds from the likes of Kucherov, Hedman and Niktia Kucherov. Well, his power play goal in the second period looked like it was zeroed in on the target, taking a perfect feed from Hedman to hammer home the one-timer. It wasn’t quite as laser-like in its precision, but he hammered that shot, looking as close to his old self than any other point this season.

* – After having so much success with the 11 Forward and seven defenseman alignment, the Lightning reverted back to the standard 12 and six lineup. That put J.T. Brown, who has played well in the previous two games, was put on the third line with Tyler Johnson and Alex Killorn. Slater Koekkoek and Andrej Sustr were scratched on defense.

“We coach to win games,’’ head coach Jon Cooper said. “We put lineups in to win games. Twenty guys will go in tonight and how we’re going to play them. We felt in different areas we could use some help, whether it was face-offs or balancing a line or things like that. Fortunately for us, it worked out.”

* – The Lightning top line was in fine form. After being held off the scoresheet in Saturday’s loss, Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos were back in the middle of the action on Monday, each with a multi-point effort. Vlad Namestnikov, you know, the other guy on that line, chipped in with his fifth goal of the season and had his third multi-point game. The trio was buzzing for good portions of the game combining for nine shots on goal and 14 shot attempts to go with a combined plus-23 in Corsi during even strength play, plus-45 in all situations.

* – Victor Hedman seems just a tad off. Not sure if he is not the same guy as last year because of the expectations on him or taking less of the burden on himself with Stamkos back or if something else is wrong. His ice time is way up compared to previous years – which might tell you how thin the Lightning blue line is as a whole – so it’s not as if the coaching staff doesn’t trust him in any and all situations. But his puck management – which has never been considered one of his strengths – has been more questionable than usual. He was credited with four giveaways on Monday, two of which resulted in a goal shortly after losing the puck.

The last time Tampa Bay played in Sunrise on Oct. 7, the Panthers had 48 shots on goal, including 40 in the first two periods. On Monday, Florida had just 23 shots on goal (though scored the same number of goals as that previous meeting). Cooper wanted to see how his team responded in this meeting.

“After what they did to us a few weeks ago, as a coaching staff, we wanted to see where we were going to be at knowing that we were going to play them again at the end of the month,’’ Cooper said. “Florida’s going to look back and say they gave up eight goals, but they’ve got a good team. They play fast. They’re heavy. For us, we needed to see where we’re at, and I’m happy with the way things turned out.’’

Postgame notes:. Tampa Bay ended a five-game losing streak in Sunrise. … D Anton Stralman registered an empty net goal for his 100th career point with Tampa Bay. … Nikita Kucherov moved past Dan Boyle and in to 10th place on all-time franchise scoring list (255 points). … The eight goals scored match a franchise record for most goals scored in a road game, matching the eight goals during an 8-7 victory at Philadelphia on Nov. 18, 2010. … Tampa Bay chased Florida starter James Reimer was chased from the game in the second period and was relieved by Antti Niemi, who was with Pittsburgh to star the season. Niemi has now faced the Lightning in two starts plus this season, allowing 14 goals in seven-plus periods.

My three stars:
1.Lightning C Steven Stamkos – Two goals, assist

2.Panthers C Aleksander Barkov – Goal, three assists, plus-2

3.Lightning C Brayden Point – Goal, assist, plus-2

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