By Michael Wax
The Lightning closed out 2023 with a massive victory, rallying from 2-0 down to take down the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 on Sunday night. Here's how they stacked up:
Paul-Point-Kucherov
Hagel-Cirelli-Stamkos
Jeannot-Glendening-Watson
ABB-Motte-Eyssimont
Hedman-Raddysh
Fleury-Cernak
de Haan-Perbix
Johansson in goal.
This was also a historic day for Captain Steven Stamkos, who played in his 1,038th game and passed Vincent Lecavalier for the most games played in Tampa Bay Lightning history.
Here are our three biggest takeaways:
Year of Nikita
Nikita Kucherov was the absolute boss of 2023, turning up another gear this season and bringing new energy into 2024. With a goal and an assist in the wins over Montreal, Kucherov finished the 2023 portion of this year, leading the NHL with 61 points, and totaled 121 points during the 2023 calendar year (3rd to MacKinnon and McDavid). This was an improvement on his 2022 calendar year, which saw him tally 118 points. It was the most points in a calendar year in Lightning history, an unbelievable achievement for a player who only seems to be getting better by the day.
Stripes Show
The second period saw a barrage of nonsense from the officiating, but none more so than the debacle that led to Montreal's 2-0 goal.
After Habs goalie Sam Montenbeault stopped a hard slap shot from Darren Raddysh, he held onto the puck for over enough time to garner a whistle. So much so that players from both sides stopped playing, and the arena music began playing. To his credit, Montembeault read the play beautifully, noticed no whistle, and shoveled the puck over to defender Johnathan Kovacevic. Kovacevic fired the puck down into an empty Tampa net, as Johansson had vacated for a typical stoppage skate around. It's such a weird play that you have to see it for yourself:
Again, I want to stress that this is not Montreal's fault. They played until the whistle, caught Tampa napping, and took full advantage. A bit of blame can also be put on Tampa, not playing until the whistle. HOWEVER, a rule clearly states that if a ref intends to blow the whistle, the play that follows will not count. Considering three of the referees/linemen also thought the play was over, and the fourth one clearly intended to blow the whistle, the play counted—just an absolute nightmare for what has been an atrocious season of NHL officiating.
Funny enough, this might be the play that woke the Bolts up. The crowd was undoubtedly amped up, and their passion got the Lightning to step up their lackluster game to tie it up before intermission.
Man Down
The injury bug has not been kind to the Lightning's defensive core over the past two weeks, and it struck again on Sunday. With Mikhail Sergachev already out with a lower-body injury, the Lightning lost both Erik Cernak and Haydn Fleury before the second period ended. Postgame didn't bring positive news either:
Even if Sergachev is ready for the Jets game on Tuesday, that still leaves the Lightning with five healthy defenders. Should they need a righty defender, the options are limited: on the Crunch roster, only Phil Myers has NHL experience. Max Crozier is an interesting option, but he's still finding his way in the AHL. On the left, they have options, though not all have NHL experience: you know what to expect with Sean Day, even with his limited experience. Jack Thompson is quietly killing it in his second full AHL season, Emil Lilleberg has been solid defensively (though he does have a penalty problem), and Declan Carlile seems to have taken that next step as well. Those aren't great for a team that needs wins and experience at this time, but they might not have a choice.
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