By Michael Wax
The Tampa Bay Lightning won their third consecutive game, making a comeback and beating the buzzer in a 4-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights.
Here are three things we saw from the win:
Mosey On Down
Since the Sergachev trade in June, most people have been talking about how Conor Geekie has been doing (and justifiably so). But a less-talked-about piece of the puzzle was JJ Moser. Moser turned it up to 11 in this one to keep the Lightning in the game.
Down 1-0 in the first, the Lightning got a giant save from Vasilevskiy before making their way off the ice. Cam Atkinson made a pass towards the middle of the neutral zone, which took a bounce before Moser picked it up in Vegas’ zone. After a juggle to get past the Vegas defense, Moser sent it through the five-hole of Adin Hill to tie the game at one.
Moser then added two secondary assists, one on the tying goal from Hagel and one on the go-ahead goal from Kucherov. Moser finished as the top Lightning player in-game score as well:
Having Moser has been huge through three games, and hopefully this continues
MVP
Nikita Kucherov continues to be the best in the world.
Another two goals for Kucherov in this one, bringing him to six in just three games to start the season. His first goal tied the game at two, capitalizing on a 2-on-1 with Jake Guentzel for the NHL 24-style goal:
Kucherov would then win it with less than a minute to go in regulation. Kucherov rushed into the zone, followed his own rebound to the left side boards, and just shot the puck toward the net:
Kucherov, Point, and Guentzel had most of the chances for the team against Vegas. While that might say something about the depth of the Lightning, we’ll use it as a chance to highlight Kucherov’s brilliance.
Out Of Their Depths
Here’s where we’ll talk about the Lightning’s depth issues.
The Lightning got two assists from their depth forwards in this game, the first two assists from their depth bottom six all season, along with no goals. It’s early, but the Lightning still got being able to put up many, if any, production from their bottom six is a concerning tread that has continued from last season.
The brilliance of Kucherov cannot be overstated. But if the Lightning are going to go somewhere this year, they’ll need the depth to step up.
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