We like analytics and numbers in sports because, over the course of the season, they tend to explain a team’s performance. However, hockey is still a sport played by humans, and emotions, both good and bad, are factors in the outcomes of individual games. Such was the case in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 5-4 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night. Nick Paul flung a shot from the boards that beat rookie Jiri Patra at the 18:47 mark of the third period for the win.
Playing against the Golden Knights is like playing hockey in the Triwizards Maze. The size of their defensemen (Alex Martinez is the shortest at 6’1″) presents a sometimes impenetrable thicket of legs, skates, and sticks that makes it hard for teams to sustain any type of offense. The Lightning threw themselves headfirst into that tangled mess and consistently saw their passes through the middle of the ice end up getting knocked away from their intended targets.
It’s frustrating and exhausting to go up against that and the Lightning weren’t winning the battles along the boards that they needed to and it eventually cost them. Vegas wasn’t overwhelming them offensively, and for the most part the Bolts were containing them. Unfortunately, a couple of outnumbered plays led to a first-period lead for the visiting team.
On the first goal, Calvin de Haan followed the play of the puck out to the point from behind the Lightning net, which, in their system is what he should be doing. The breakdown comes when a forward is slow to cover down low when the defenseman leaves the area. In this case Michael Eyssimont didn’t rotate over fast enough and Darren Raddysh was in front of the net with two Golden Knights to cover. He chose the one nearest the action but couldn’t tie up Paul Cotter’s stick and the forward was able to deflect it over to the other forward, Jonathan Marchessault who was uncovered and able to bat in the puck.
The second goal was another instance of the Lightning doing the right thing, but not completely executing the play. Victor Hedman shut down Jack Eichel along the boards. The play should have been stopped there, but Nick Paul came over and tried to swat the puck out of the zone, but didn’t hit it hard enough and it went right to an open Mark Stone and there was an instant two-on-one down low. Stone sent it to Ivan Barbashev who put the puck in the net before Vasy could get over.
The air was out of the building and the Lightning looked a little sluggish. Vegas has that ability to just kind of drag the energy out of a team and a building.
The second period started with that same type of emotion and Vegas pressed, especially on a power play where Vasilevskiy had to make five saves, including several on Eichel back-to-back-to-back. Give the Lightning credit though, they kept grinding things out and started to earn a little space in the Vegas zone. One of the ways to beat them is to make quick decisions. Any hesitation gives them time to cover the zone and divert your intended plans. The Bolts were able to get some pressure by working the puck from low-to-high and it paid off after a shot from the point hit Luke Glendening in front of Patera. The puck came to Connor Sheary who worked it back to Victor Hedman. Hedman’s quick shot hit a skate and was heading wide, but Alex Barre-Boulet had circled from behind the net and redirected it past the goalie to make it 2-1.
Then the hitting picked up and an Ivan Barbashev hit on Anthony Cirelli incensed Brandon Hagel. He jumped in and instigated a flurry of punches that sparked the crowd and the team.
Brayden Point told Gabby Shirley at the second as intermission, “Honestly, I think it just gave the whole building energy, including our team. That’s the loudest I’ve heard it I think all year after that fight. So it really just kickstarted our energy and we built off that.”
The Lightning were shorthanded after the fight, but Mark Stone took a needless tripping penalty on the power play to make it a four-on-four. With the emotions rising, and the building rocking after Mikey Eyssimont took on Nicolas Roy in a short-lived wrestling match, Alex Pietrangelo flipped the puck into the stands just as the Lightning went on a power play.
There was confidence and purpose on the two-man advantage. Most importantly they were able to keep the puck in the zone. Patera made a save on a Hedman shot but lost his stick. He was momentarily concerned with retrieving the piece of graphite and Nikita Kucherov took advantage, as he blasted a one-timer past him. Now the emotions were really boiling over.
Still on the power play, the Bolts were right back in the zone and with a fortuitous bounce, took the lead. Kucherov tried to thread a pass through to Stamkos, but it hit a skate. Unlike earlier in the game, Vegas wasn’t able to clear, instead it was Brayden Point diving in to deflect it into the net to give Tampa Bay the 3-2 lead, just 33 seconds after they had tied it.
Point would make it 4-2 a couple of minutes later as he was the first to a rebound off of a Nick Paul shot that rung off the crossbar. It was also the 500th point of his career. Not a bad turn of events for a team that has had issues finding an extra gear in games at times this season.
Still, there was one more period to play and Vegas wasn’t going away. Emotion is great when it helps you mount a two-goal comeback. It is a double-edged sword, though. Let it control you too much and bad things can happen. Kucherov was held on an entry and visibly upset when the referee didn’t raise his hand to acknowledge it. He continued his tirade after having a breakaway denied a handful of seconds later. In fact he continued to bark at the ref all the way to the bench, eventually to the point where he was hit with an unsportsmanlike call.
The Lightning had been playing well in the third up to that point, but gifted a power play, the Golden Knights took all of 15 seconds to capitalize with Marchessault recording his second of the night on a tic-tac-toe passing play. Vegas was buoyed by the effort and tied it four minutes later after an extended shift in the zone led to a Cotter goal on a seeing-eye shot past a screened Vasilevskiy.
Would the Lightning throw away a lead and two points? No. They buckled down and while they bent a few times on defense, they never broke. It would be Brayden Point leading them out of their own zone and starting a transitional rush that made the difference. He threw the puck to the middle of the ice where Hedman was crashing the zone. Patera was intent on making sure the Big Swede didn’t beat him and ended up unable to defend the net when the puck skittered all the way over to a wide open Nick Paul who threw it into the partially vacated net for the eventual game-winner.
Two more Vasilevskiy saves and a Cirelli blocked shot were all it took for the Bolts to hold onto the lead and pick up a valuable two points.
The Lines
The Goals
Jonathan Marchessault (Paul Cotter, Brayden McNabb) 1-0 Golden Knights
Ivan Barbashev (Mark Stone, Jack Eichel) 2-0 Golden Knights
Alex Barré- Boulet (Victor Hedman, Conor Sheary) 2-1 Golden Knights
Nikita Kucherov (Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman) 5-on-3 Power Play, 2-2
Brayden Point (Nick Paul, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 3-2 Lightning
Brayden Point (Nick Paul, Nikita Kucherov) 4-2 Lightning
Jonathan Marchessault (William Karlsson, Jack Eichel) Power Play, 4-3 Lightning
Paul Kotter (Brayden McNabb, Ben Hutton) 4-4
Nick Paul (Victor Hedman, Nickita Kucherov) 5-4 Lightning
