Tampa Bay Lightning top line, relentless puck pursuit lead the way in San Jose

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
November 8, 2017

The Lightning went hunting for pucks on Wednesday and ended up bagging the Sharks..

Tampa Bay started off the Golden Triangle trip in California with an impressive 5-1 victory against San Jose at the Shark Tank. The Lightning’s top line skated circles around the Sharks, combining for nine points to end San Jose’s winning streak at four games.

Tampa Bay improved to 12-2-2 on the season to continue with the best start in franchise history.

So how did they arrive at the latest victory?

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ANDREI VASILEVSKIY: Sometimes it’s easy to overlook the role of a team’s goaltender in a dominant victory. But as he has done throughout the first month of the season, Vasilevskiy came up with some big saves early on to keep things in line. Even after the Sharks scored on the opening shift of the game, Vasilevskiy helped setting the Lightning in to the game, stopping 10-of-11 shots in the first period that kept the game close before Tampa Bay started to take over the game in the second period. He finished with 32 saves for his league-leading 12th victory of the season. Vasilevskiy improved to 11-0-1 in his past 12 starts.

WIZARDS OF OV: With all due credit to Bolts Prospects for the name, the best line in hockey continued to shine as Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and Vladislav Namestnikov combined for three goals, nine points and a plus-6 rating. Stamkos had his fourth three-point game of the season while tying a career-high with three assists, the fifth of his career and second this season. Stamkos continues to pace the league with 28 points and 21 assists.

Kucherov scored his league-high 15th goal of the season and registered his second three-point game of the season. The goal, which came 44 seconds in to the second period, marked his fourth game-winning goal of the season. The three-point effort moved him past Chris Gratton for ninth on the franchise scoring lis.

Namestnikov tied a career high with three points, the fourth three-point night of his career, while scoring twice for his first multi-goal game of the season, his fourth career game with two-or-more goals.

The trio was a treat to watch on Wednesday, zipping the puck around, moving their feet, darting in to areas and delivering crisp passes. On Namestnikov’s first goal, Kucherov made a slippery move at the top of the zone to create a passing lane across the ice to Stamkos who quickly fed Namestnikov at the top of the crease. On his second goal of the night, Kucherov was left wide open at the left circle and had time to pick his corner only to have Aaron Dell get the shaft of his stick on the puck. But the puck found Stamkos behind the net, who delivered a pass to Kucherov who quickly found Namestnikov in the low slot. It left the Sharks looking like they were chasing the Tazmanian Devil.

PUCK PURSUIT: To steal a phrase from Doc Emerick, My Goodness. After San Jose had a dominant first shift and opened the scoring, the tide quickly shifted back in Tampa Bay’s favor. The reason the Lightning were able to take over the game was because of their puck pursuit. Tampa Bay was excellent in this aspect of their game against San Jose. Every time the Sharks had the puck, the Lightning were right in their face, disrupting any type of attack San Jose tried to mount. It was reminiscent of how the Pittsburgh Penguins attacked Tampa Bay during the 2016 Eastern Conference finals, using their speed combined with a relentless pursuit, evident even on the penalty kill where Tampa Bay, by my count, four Grade-A chances while shorthanded.

“As that game went on, especially in the second period, we were on top of them, we were skating and we weren’t really giving them any space to make plays,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “Then it turned into a little bit of a shot and retrieval game and that kind of swayed in our favor and fortunately some of the pucks went in for us.’’

O FROM THE D: Once again the Lightning defense turned offensive as Jake Dotchin scored his first career NHL goal that tied the game in the first period. Slater Koekkoek, back in the lineup, scored his third of the season that gave Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead. The two goals on Wednesday give the Lightning 11 combined goals from the defense through 16 games.

“We have a top line that’s sitting up there in scoring, but you need other guys to help you out,’’ Cooper said. “You need, especially the way the game’s played today, your offense is five-man units and when your D is chipping in then they become a threat. Now you have to defend everybody, and it’s been helping us out.’’

Postgame notes: LW Chris Kunitz appeared in his 900th career NHL game. … C Brayden Point extended his scoring streak to four games. … RW Yanni Gourde established a career high by extending his point streak to four games. … Tampa Bay scratched D Andrej Sustr and RW Gabriel Dumont. … C Cedric Paquette remains out as he recovers from an upper-body injury. … Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper picked up his 200th career victory.

My three stars:
1.Lightning RW Nikita Kucherov/i> – Goals, two assists, plus-2, 10 shot attempts

2.Lightning LW Vladislav Namestnikov – Two goals, assist, plus-2, four shots on goal

3.Lightning C Steven Stamkos – Three assists, plus-2, five shot attempts