By Michael Wax
After a problematic western road trip that saw the Bolts go 2-3-0, the Lightning bounced back in a big way and put together a complete performance in their 6-1 win over the St. Louis Blues. Here's how they stacked up:
Paul-Point-Kucherov
Hagel-Cirelli-Stamkos
Jeannot-Glendening-Eyssimont
Sheary-Motte-ABB
Hedman-Cernak
Sergachev-Perbix
Fleury-Raddysh
Vasilevskiy
Here are our three biggest takeaways:
Early... and Often
The Lightning have done a pretty good job of scoring first recently, which was a bit of a concern early in the season. With the game-opening goal against the Blues, the Lightning scored the goal in eight of their past nine games. The new issue that seems to have popped up is scoring often, as the Lightning are alternating games between scoring in bunches and barely scoring. Luckily, this game provided the former.
The first period saw the lightning score three times, all at even strength and two by depth players. In the second period, which saw some St. Louis pushback, Lightning scored twice again, with one from Nikita Kucherov and the other a depth goal from Haydn Fleury.
Finally, it was the power play's turn to get rolling, with Nick Paul providing the exclamation point in the third period to make it a 6-0 game.
There's a Fleurricane Comin' Through
With the Lightning defense suffering a significant blow with the injury to Mikhail Sergachev early in the first period, they would need a big performance from somebody you might not expect.
Enter Haydn Fleury.
Fleury has been in and out of the Lightning lineup this season, this only being his seventh game the entire year. In response to Sergachev's injury, Fleury put up his first multi-point game since 10/28/21 and was a +4 (highest on the team).
While his assist was borderline on whether or not to count, his dump-in of the puck allowed Tanner Jeannot to get to it first and throw it in front to a battling Mikey Eyssimont for the game-opening goal. His goal, which made it 5-0, was an absolute rocket from the blue line that Blues' goalie Jordan Binnington didn't even see.
He wasn't superb defensively, generating a couple of chances for St. Louis due to bad passes out of the defensive zone. But he did hold his ground in a game that saw him play over 22 minutes for the first time since Oct. 18, 2021.
Consistently Inconsistent
The Lightning's best remedy to some bad road trips has always been a get-right game at home. We saw it after their abysmal performance against the Stars, and it was again on display in this one.
Now, while this may be more indicative of the Lightning's struggles on the road, the Bolts generally have not put together a string of success as we've seen in past seasons. This past road trip, for example, saw alternating wins and losses to finish sub .500.
The race to the playoffs has already begun for the Lightning, which seems wild because it's not even 2024 yet. But while other teams have opportunities to gain ground with games in hand, the Bolts must keep winning to keep pace.
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