By Michael Wax
In Victor Hedman's 1000th NHL game, the Tampa Bay Lightning bounced back from their four-game losing streak and shut out the Dallas Stars 4-0:
Stamkos-Point-Kucherov
Hagel-Cirelli-ABB
Jeannot-Paul-Eyssimont
Watson-Glendening-Motte
Hedman-Perbix
Sergachev-Cernak
de Haan-Raddysh
Vasilevskiy
Here are our three biggest takeaways:
Big Swede
Playing 1000 games in the NHL is an extremely rare accomplishment. Playing 1000 games for the Tampa Bay Lightning is something that has rarely happened at all. For Victor Hedman, tonight was all about him. The 15-year defenseman suited up for his 1000th game in this one, only the third Tampa Bay Lightning player in history to accomplish such a feat and the first Lightning defender in history.
Warm-ups begin with everyone wearing Hedman jerseys with customized '1000' on the back, and the pregame ceremony saw messages from former Bolts like Vincent Lecavalier, Pat Maroon, Ondrej Palat, Ryan McDonagh, and more. Hedman was given many gifts, including the usual silver stick for playing in your 1000th game.
It was a touching ceremony for someone who has given their heart and soul to this franchise for 15 years. Hedman can pass Lecavalier for the second-most games in franchise history later this year.
Big Cat
In the last game's article, I mentioned how Andrei Vasilevskiy may have returned too soon. Vasilevskiy responded by recording his 33rd career shutout, proving that he does, in fact, know better than me.
The defense in front of him was better than we have seen in most games, with Vasilevskiy making some big saves at critical times. His most memorable same came against Roope Hintz when it was still scoreless, and he made an incredible save on Ty Dellandrea at 2-0 in the second to keep the shutout intact. Overall, Vasilevskiy put up a 25-save shutout. It was his sixth career shutout against the Stars, the most shutouts he has had against any one team.
"Obviously, that game was pretty huge for me and for our team overall," said Vasilevskiy. "So, yes, it feels pretty good."
Big Hurdles Cleared
The Lightning had three considerable accomplishments in this game, giving fans hope regarding certain aspects of their game that had been questioned in recent stretches. For one, Nikita Kucherov's opening goal was just the second time in 11 games that the Lightning had scored the game-opening goal, and the only other time had been against the Pittsburgh Penguins, where the Lightning got out to a 2-0 lead, and proceeded to lose 4-2. So they got the game-opening goal and held that lead for the rest of the game.
The second big obstacle the Lightning were able to clear was the scoring of even-strength goals. The last time the Lightning had multiple even-strength goals in a game was during the fun but ultimately unsustainable shooting bonanza against the Carolina Hurricanes. In this one, the Bolts got four even-strength goals, all of which came in various ways.
Finally, a big problem throughout the season has been the secondary scoring for the Lightning. While it only came from two players, getting three goals from the bottom six was huge. Anthony Cirelli picked up two goals in what was a vital boost to his goal total, which has been lackluster this season, and Luke Glendening put the cherry on top with a breakaway goal to make it 3-0 in the third.
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