By Michael Wax
The Tampa Bay Lightning got their second consecutive win, this time in front of a sold-out home crowd for the home opener, as they defeated the Vancouver Canucks.
Here are three things we saw from the win:
Big Cat, Strong Cat
Andrei Vasilevskiy put together another very solid start to his 2024-25 campaign, stopping 26 of 27 Vancouver shots for his 295th career win.
Vasilevskiy had a quiet start to the game, only facing one shot through the first 12 minutes. But the game intensity from the Canucks certainly picked up throughout the game, especially in the third period, where Vancouver put up 11 shots and scored their only goal. In the one goal for Vancouver, Vasilevskiy got beat on a double deflection and it slightly squeaked its way through.
The main thing about Vasilevskiy‘s performance through two games has been his poise. He’s always been in the right positions through the first 120 minutes of the season, and aside from a scramble play where Vancouver hit the post, it never felt like he was hurried to make any sort of save in this game. It’s a nice change from last regular season, where Vasilevskiy had a lot of jerky motions to try and keep the puck out of the net. Credit for that goes to a defensive unit where Ryan McDonagh and Victor Hedman have played very solid defense through two games, but part of it goes to the guy stopping all the pucks.
Power Outage
If the Lightning had one very sore spot throughout this game, it came in the form of their power play. The power play went 0/5 (one of those being with less than 30 seconds to go in regulation), and had a very difficult time even setting up to get any sort of chance on net. Many of their failed opportunities came because of the lost faceoff draw at the start of each power play, resulting in a power play that had difficulty breaking the seam at the blue line before getting into their box and one formation.
Through two games, the power play is 2/11. While that number might not be terrible, the Lightning certainly have a long way to go to emulate the numbers they had put up during the Steven Stamkos era.
For The Bay
This past week has been difficult for the Tampa Bay area. After Hurricane Milton, many people were looking for a sense of normalcy again. While the Lightning could provide some of that in their season-opening win against Carolina on Friday, this felt like the restart they were looking for.
Many in the Lightning organization acknowledged how difficult this week has been for their families, as well. One difficulty was not knowing what their houses and possessions looked like.
There was a lot of honoring pregame, including honoring first responders with Lights On around the arena for their heroic actions throughout the past week. There was a video package narrated by newly minted captain Victor Hedman, showing the damage done and those who helped fix it. Hedman, who was introduced last among all skaters, entered the ice with a flag that read “Tampa Bay Strong.”
The Lightning played a pretty good game on the ice. But this home opener was about more than that, giving those in the stands and watching at home something to rally around.
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