Train Kept A-rolling All Week Long

The Lightning are in a stronger position playoff-wise than they have been all year as they start their All-star break. It’ll be a battle every night through April, but for the past few weeks the team’s been as hot as almost anybody. The wins have come via a solid formula. Kucherov is unstoppable, Vasy is back to top form, Syracuse Crunch call-ups are playing like NHL’ers and scoring is coming from outside the core group. All that and the powerplay, prior to last night’s win over the Devils, had been a dominant 39% during the surge.

After going 4-0 on a solid homestand, the week started with the Bolts headed up the coast to face the Sabres who are on the outside looking in, as always.  On a snowy Saturday afternoon, Tampa took an early lead on a beautiful Cirelli to Hagel to Nick Paul goal and a Tyler Motte shorty. They played efficiently for the rest of the afternoon and Vasy was solid in a 3-1win. 

The next night the team was in Detroit and came out strong on a Hedman goal halfway through the first period. Unfortunately, that was as good as it was going to get as the Bolts looked slow and soft through the rest of the first and the second periods when they were outshot, outhit, and generally outplayed. The Bolts came out with an inspired third period but couldn’t dent Alex Lyon and limped off with a 2-1 loss. 

With one up and one down on the short trip the lightning headed to Philadelphia to face the Flyers who are sinking like a stone. Given Tampa’s inability to put together a meaningful winning streak throughout the first 40 games, this felt like a must have and the team responded with a solid game. Braden Point opened the scoring off a sweet feed (dump on net) from Crunch D-man Max Crozier. To follow that up MVP Kucherov had a one timer (two seconds after the powerplay) to get to 2-0 and a sweet super-nonchalant kick to the stick goal on the next powerplay to go up 3-0. The Flyers closed it to within one twice before the Bolts got two empty netters to make it 6-3, sealing a four-point three-game road swing and moving ahead of the Leafs (who have a week’s worth of games in hand) and into third in the Atlantic.

Returning home, the Lightning faced the Desert Dogs back at Amalie. The Dogs had been trounced the night before in Miami were made to look like an AHL club again on Thursday by the Bolts. The only things to Note here were:

• An efficient 6-3 beatdown by the Bolts and another three points by Kuch
• A goal by Mitchell Chafee (his NHL first) that fired up the Lightning bench because FOUR Crunch players were on the ice for it.
• Recognizing my association with The Morning Skate, the Lightning organization asked me to throw the Power Switch as part of the pre-game ceremonies.

And finally, to bring it on home at eight wins in nine games before the all-star break, the Bolts posted another 6-3 win over the depleted Devils. This one looked a lot like the Philly game. The Lightning took an early lead, allowed New Jersey to get within one a few times before closing it out with two empty netters for the teams third consecutive 6-3 win. Kuch only had two points in this one, which featured some of the best defense the team has played all year.

The Bolts are now off for a week and a half until February 7^th before a short road test that includes the vaunted B’s and the Rangers. They’ll be getting Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak back during the break and may see tough guys Tanner Jeannot (day-to-day) and Austin Watson (week-to-week) return as well.