By Jake Ricker
The Lightning welcomed the Capitals into town tonight on Halloween night, and the Lightning scared off the Capitals in a 3-0 shutout win. Here are three things we saw from the Bolt's victory.
JJ Moser
JJ Moser, who is the newest addition to the Lightning D core, has looked really good in the few games he has played, and tonight was no exception. Moser is a much more active defenceman. but pairs well with Hedman, who is the calm, cool and collected veteran Moser made multiple plays that won't show up in the score sheet but helped push the Capitals off the puck and let the Lightning regain control.
Moser finished the night with a stat line of 0 points, 1 shot, and 2 blocks. While it may not seem like much, he was one of the more active D men in tonight's game. At just 24 years old, if Moser can continue to develop and play at a high level, he could quickly become one of the Lightning's best defensemen.
Offensive Pressure
While it took a while to get going, the Lightning offense came alive in the third period. The Bolts had plenty of chances in this game to get on the board but just couldn't get one to bounce their way. However, they kept at it, and eventually, Mitchell Chaffee opened the scoring on a great deflection from a Nick Paul shot.
It was then Brayden Point who had an easy tap in goal on a pass from, you guessed it, Nikita Kucherov. But the guy who stole the show was Conor Geekie, who netted his first NHL goal on a beautiful shot from the slot, giving the Lightning a 3-0 lead.
Geekie said after the game that while he was a little star-struck, but it was a moment he wouldn't have wanted to happen in any other place. Geekie is a very talented player, and Lightning fans should be excited to watch him grow. The Lightning offense did a great job tonight of creating chances and capitalizing despite not being able to find the back of the net early in the game.
Vasilevskiy
The Capitals mustered 32 shots in this game, and none of them went in. Vasilevskiy has had his fair share of bad games over the years, even getting pulled against Toronto not too long ago. Tonight, it was a vintage big cat game. Vasilevskiy made save after save and never gave the Capitals many great chances. It was a performance we have almost come to take for granted, but it was a great bounce-back game for Vasy nonetheless. When Vasilevskiy is playing at this level, and the Lightning can have a decent defensive effort, any team is going to have a hard time scoring on the Lightning.
Final Thoughts
This was a really well-played game by the Lightning. Vasilevskiy gets the shutout in what was a vintage Vasilevskiy performance, and Conor Geekie gets his first NHL goal. A much-needed win for the Lightning as they now look ahead to the much-anticipated return of Steven Stamkos on Monday night.
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