“The score was definitely not indicative of the game.”
Those were the words of head coach Jon Cooper following the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 8-1 win over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night. Usually, when a coach utters those words, they’re on the losing end, but tonight, all of the bounces and shots went the Lightning’s way as they built a 5-0 lead in the first period and then refused to let the Sharks chip away at the lead.
Full disclosure: we did not watch this game live, so tonight’s “recap” will be more of a vibes check. If you need a blow-by-blow recount here is NHL.com’s recap, and the Lightning’s recap. What we’ll chat about for the next few minutes is what didn’t happen. The Lightning didn’t let two points slip through their fingers.
Hopefully, by the end of the season, this is just another win lost among many, many others as the Bolts prepare for the postseason. However, it could have gone another way. The Lightning were coming off of a break, and facing a team that could have been taken lightly. The rebuilding Sharks got off to a bad start (no wins in their first nine games) so it’s easy to write them off as a bad team. They’ve been bucking that trend recently though, as they entered the night on a three-game winning streak.
Throw in the fact that the Lightning, despite seeing the return of Nick Paul, were still short-handed, with All-World winger Nikita Kucherov missing his second game, and Mitchell Chaffee out as well. The lines were jumbled up again with Tampa Bay rolling an 11/7 formation. With the Magician from Maykop on the sideline, who would spark the offense?
The answer? Everyone. It was the third line of Conor Geekie, Gage Goncalves, and Cameron Atkinson that scored the first two goals. Then it was a hybrid line of Jake Guentzel, Brandon Hagel, and Anthony Cirelli accounting for three of the next four (with a power-play goal mixed in) before the two Nicks chipped in tallies of their own.
Even the fourth line, the one that conceded the lone San Jose goal, finished the night on the plus side of scoring chances (5-4) and shots for (8-1). It was a total team effort that propelled them to the lopsided victory.
We’ve seen similar games like this already this season. The Lightning build an early lead, but it goes away, and a win is turned into a loss (cough, Columbus, cough). Despite things being a little closer than they appeared, that didn’t happen tonight. As Coach Cooper also mentioned, the teams were dead-even in scoring chances after two periods, with Natural Stat Trick giving the Lightning a 20-18 edge at 5v5 through 40 minutes and San Jose eking out a 7-6 advantage in high-danger chances. Yet, the 4-0 didn’t turn into a 4-3 lead and suck the energy out of the building.
Instead, they had their second blowout win in the past two weeks and can enjoy the next two days off before heading out west for a tough road trip. Had they managed to lose this game, it would have sent them on the road with losses in three of their last four and many more questions than answers.
In a league where there is a superfine thread between losing and winning on a nightly basis winning games that you are supposed to win is wildly important. When the season is over, the teams that are competing in the playoffs are the ones that have the fewest games that they regret losing. So, lucky bounces or not, the Lightning kept their season on track with a win tonight.
It would be a bit hyperbolic to say tonight was a turning point, especially with 58 games still to be played, but the way they took advantage of their bounces, and didn’t let the Sharks climb back into the game at any point echoed the way they went about their business during the 2019 to 2023 stretch when they were the team to beat in the league.
If they can keep that kind of focus and work ethic (Coach Cooper called out Glendening and J.J. Moser blocking shots at the end of the game) going, this team can make some noise in the Eastern Conference this year. The trick is to do it night-in, and night-out.
The Goals
Cameron Atkinson (Conor Geekie) 1-0 Lightning
Conor Geekie (Cameron Atkinson, Victor Hedman) 2-0 Lightning
Brandon Hagel (Jake Guentzel, Ryan McDonagh) 3-0 Lightning
Brandon Hagel (Erik Cernak) 4-0 Lightning
Jake Guentzel (Victor Hedman, Brayden Point) Power Play, 5-0 Lightning
Anthony Cirelli (Ryan McDonagh, Brayden Point) 6-0 Lightning
Nick Perbix (Brayden Point, Emil Lilleberg) 7-0 Lightning
Alexander Wennberg (Fabian Zetterlund, Jan Rutta) 7-1 Lightning
Nick Paul (Brayden Point, J.J. Moser) 8-1 Lightning
