By Jake Ricker
Last night, the Lightning took on the Columbus Blue Jackets, looking to continue a successful road trip now back at Amalie Arena, celebrating Vasy's 500th game and Head Athletic Trainer Tom Muligan's 2,000th game.
Victor Hedman also returned to the lineup in tonight's game after a short absence. Here is everything we noticed from the Lightning's 5-3 win over the Blue Jackets.
Andrei Vasievlskiy
The Lightning honored Vasilevskiy tonight after hitting 500 games played earlier last week. It was another well-done ceremony with Vasilevskiy, his wife, and his son all receiving gifts, including a custom golf cart from his teammates!
Things only got better on the ice for Vasilevskiy, stopping 28 of 31 shots. While not tested a ton, Vasklevskiy made the saves he needed to make and continues to show why he is the best goalie in the NHL. Most of the goals, which came late in the game, are ones that didn't leave him much of a chance and were more an issue of defense. Vasy is the rock behind this team, and when he's at his best, the Lightning has a chance to win each and every night.
Offense
The Lightning offense has been fantastic as of late and was once again great, scoring ___ goals in last night's game. Jake Guentzel was one of the goal scorers, extending his goal streak to 7, which leads the NHL, and is now just one away from tying the franchise record for longest goal streak for Lightning players in their first year. Not only was the top six scoring, but the bottom six was as well. Luke Glendening and Mitchell Chaffee both also made great plays to get on the board. This Lightning team often reminds you of the offense in 2019, which could score at will but with a much better defense this time around. The Power play also cashed in on their 5-minute major, which, while sloppy at first, got the job done. It's a power play that started off slow but now, coming into last nights, ranks 3rd in the NHL. All this to say the Lightning offense is firing on all cylinders.
Penalty Kill
Surprisingly, it's been the penalty kill that has struggled for the Lightning despite bringing back most of the same players from last year. The PK was really good in last night's game, killing 4 out of the four penalties the team took. 5 penalties, of course, are way too many penalties for a team to take, but it was good to see the PK get in good work even with their backs against the walls.
Third Period
The biggest negatives from this game came from the final 20 minutes. The Lightning looked like they thought the game was over, and the Blue Jackets would just give in. But that was not the case, and Columbus made them pay, making this a one-goal game untill Point scored the empty net goal. Cooper spoke on the team's play in the third period after the game.
"For two periods, these guys could not have played any better. They built the lead that they had. Now, was there a part of me that thinks our guys were hoping the other team was going to quit and they could just skate through the third period? They didn't."
Cooper latter added that at the end of the day 2 points is 2 points and this team knows that third period is somthing they can not repeat. As long as the Lightning can correct this mistake they should have no issues closing out games.
Next up for the Lightning, they will continue their homestand as they welcome in the St Louis Blues. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 PM EST on Thursday.
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