By Michael Wax
The Lightning have finally won a road game, defeating the Senators 6-4 in a competitive and crazy game. Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point both had performences for the ages in the win. Here were the line combos:
ABB-Cirelli-Kucherov
Eyssimont-Point-Hagel
Stamkos-Paul-Sheary
Jeannot-Glendening-Watson
Hedman-Cernak
Sergachev-Raddysh
de Haan-Bogosian
Johansson in net.
Here are the biggest takeaways from the Lightning's 6-4 win:
Message Sender
After the Lightning's disappointing 4-2 loss to the Blue Jackets last Thursday, Jon Cooper made a surprising yet needed shake up to the forward lines heading into this game. All three of Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, and Nikita Kucherov started on separate lines, a message that any two of them playing together was a privilege and not a right.
Another big shock came when the team took the ice for warm-ups. Waltteri Merelä was scratched in favor of Austin Watson, which wasn’t a huge surprise considering Merelä hadn’t put up any points in 10 games, but had been playing well enough to warren a spot in the lineup.
The more surprising scratch came on defense, where Zach Bogosian entered the lineup for his third game of the season in place of the sophomore defenseman, Nick Perbix. Since being called up last season, Perbix hadn’t missed a game for any reason, and a healthy scratch was surprising but well warranted. He has not played up to his potential so far in his sophomore season, and this was certainly a wake up call from coach Cooper to the young defenseman.
Anytime coach Cooper makes a drastic lineup change, the eyebrows of the fanbase go up. But more often than not, he makes the right decision, and that was evident in this game’s team performance.
Shining Stars
As mentioned earlier, the duo of Point and Kucherov was separated heading into the game, giving them an opportunity to gel with some other line mates while also reminding them of the responsibilities that each of them carries. Both responded with huge performances, and where eventually put back together before the night's end.
Point put up the second hat trick of his career, and the first since his natural hat trick against Pittsburgh on 11/15/18. Kucherov decided to one-up his star teammate, putting up a five-point performance. Kucherov put up the sixth goal of the game, and assisted on four of the other five goals the Lightning scored (the only one he didn't was Mikey Eyssimont's Superman effort). With the fourth five-point game of his career, Kucherov passed Vincent Lecavalier for the most in Lightning history.
Lapses
Despite the good times and the six goals, the Lightning once again showed that they need massive improvements when it comes to the 3rd period. They were outscored 3-2, out-shot 12-6, and gave up a variety of grade-A chances. Yes, some of this had to do with score effects, being up by three goals and all. But whenever the team seems to encouter any pressure in the third period, they collapse.
Final Thoughts
The Lightning played pretty well over the first 40 minutes, than held on through a nonsense 3rd period. For a team that had been struggling on the road, that's about as much as you can ask for.
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