Compared to their previous three weeks, last week was a pretty good for the Tampa Bay Lightning. They went 2-1-1, snapped a losing streak, and picked up enough points to keep their cushion between a playoff spot and a wild card spot (the Florida Panthers are 11 points back and starting to run out of games). By the standards they have set over the last few seasons, though, it wasn’t a fantastic week. Both of their wins came against struggling teams and it took a furious comeback against Vegas to earn a point in that game.
Still, a winning week is a good week, and the Lightning are slowly getting their style back as they integrate Tanner Jeannot and Mike Eyssimont. They also had to deal with a few injuries as Victor Hedman, Steven Stamkos, Anthony Cirelli, Zach Bogosian, and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare all missed time. There were a few players that helped propel the Lightning to a winning week.
Alex Killorn
4 Games, 3 Goals, 2 Assists, 1.89 ixGF, 11 iHDCF
Killorn is aging like a fine wine or a Mickey Mantle rookie card. On Sunday he cracked the 20 goal mark for the third time of his career, all in the last four years. He also hit the 50-point mark for the second time in his career. He’s quietly put up a solid NHL career with 191 goals and 453 goals in 790 games.
Nikita Kucherov
4 Games, 3 Goals, 4 Assists, 1.36 ixGF, 31 iCF
Kucherov is going to probably put up the quietest 115 point season in the history of the NHL. In his first healthy regular season in a while, Kucherov has shown why he’s one of the most prolific offensive players of his generation. Unfortunately, Connor McDavid and David Pastrnak’s historic seasons are going to shadow his production a bit.
Five of his points came on the power play as the Lightning posted a 26.7% success rate with the extra skater (although one more on Sunday would have been nice).
Brayden Point
4 Games, 4 Goals, 2 Assists, 2.59 ixGF, 22 iSCF
The never-still Point set a career-high in goals scored with 43 as he found the back of the net four times over the week. The top line was back to being the top line for most of the week for the Lightning after they had a bit of a lull during the Lightning’s skid. Point has a solid shot at hitting 50 goals for the first time in his career.
Lightning / NHL News
Lightning play well, but lose, to Jets [Raw Charge]
Not all solid efforts result in wins. The Lightning played well for most of the night, but a couple of bad breaks (and a failed 5-on-3) left them a goal short.
Lightning have mastered the art of adding new players [Tampa Bay Times]
Tampa Bay doesn’t play the easiest system in the league so it does take awhile for new players to feel comfortable in their new threads. They’ve done a pretty good job of assimilating players over the last couple of years, on and off the ice.
One-on-one with Tanner Jeannot [NHL.com]
One of those new guys is Tenner Jeannot. Gabby Shirley sat down with the new forward to talk about the trade.
Lightning Lore Episode 1 [NHL.com]
Paul Kennedy sits down with Phil Esposito and Henry Paul to chat about the very early days of the Lightning. Golf courses, the original Malio’s, and Phil’s charisma all helped bring hockey to Tampa.
Marc Joannette has officiated over 1500 games in the NHL [NHL.com]
The long time official chatted with NHL.com about his 24-year career calling infractions on just about all of the great players over the last two decades (except for Wayne Gretzky).
The Flyers are rebuilding and Danny Briere isn’t afraid to say it [Broad Street Hockey]
For some reason, teams have shied away from stating the obvious of late. While they do everything they need to do in a rebuild, they find some other way to tell their fans what they’re doing with “retooling” being a favorite. Interim general manager Danny Briere isn’t ready to tear the Philadelphia Flyers down to the foundations, but he admits it won’t be a quick fix.
