Look. We’ve all done it. It’s Thanksgiving Day, the turkey comes out of the oven, and you tell yourself you’re going to pace yourself. You’re not going to over-indulge. Yet, twenty minutes later, with cranberry sauce dripping down your chin, you realize that you’ve just consumed the caloric intake reserved for a family of four. The next thing you know, you’re passed out on the couch.
With four goals in the first ten minutes of the game, the Lightning devoured the Flames like they were smothered in gravy. Then, in the third period, the hockey tryptophan kicked in and Calgary circles around them. The Lightning have Andrei Vasilevskiy, though, so there wasn’t much damage done, and the Bolts had their 5-1 win.
We will keep this recap quick because we all have better things to do today. In their fifth win a row, the Lightning pretty much played their hits.
Hit number one – A strong start to the game. Seconds after Andrei Vasilevskiy stoned Jonathan Huberdeau at the doorstep, Brandon Hagel (of course), and Charle-Edouard D’Astous kicked off the scoring with goals 47 seconds apart. Zemgus Girgensons (THE HAMMER) bounced a shot off a defenseman for his fifth goal of the season, and then Declan Carlile found the back of the net.
Hit number two – strong penalty kill. Did the Lightning take too many penalties? Yup. They were shorthanded four times through the first 22 minutes of the game. Technically it was five since Nikita Kucherov had a double-minor after rearranging Joel Farabee’s bite pattern with a high-stick to his mouth. To their credit, they killed them off, with few golden chances for the Flames (who entered the game ranked 31st in the league and looked like it).
Hit number three – Didn’t score on the power play. The Lightning had four opportunities of their own (even if one of them was abbreviated). Many times this season Tampa Bay has posted a big fat zero with the extra skater and looked bad doing it. Tonight was one of those nights. Their power play looked good, it just didn’t convert. On their first full opportunity, Devin Cooley stopped Oliver Bjorkstrand twice and the iron denied two more. Cooley, who relieved starter Dustin Wolf after the youngster gave up three goals on four shots, was an octopus on the next opportunity, denying Nick Paul in close by sprawling across the crease.
Hit number four – They took the foot off the gas in the third. That was a bad period. No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. Natural Stat Trick had Calgary with 20 scoring chances in the final frame with 14 of them considered high-danger. That’s almost as many shot attempts (15) as the Lightning had in the period. We’ve seen this at times in the season, and it’s frustrating. Yes, Farabee scored short-handed early in the period, but Vasilevskiy bailed the out his teammates (he made 18 of his 32 saves in the period) the rest of the way before Nikita Kucherov ended things with his 11th goal of the season.
You never want to see your favorite team get caved in during a hockey game, but if they are going to do it, best to do it with a three or four goal lead. If nothing else, it gives the coaching staff something to harp on at the morning skate on Friday in Detroit. Even Coach Cooper kind of shrugged it off in his abbreviated presser (he took one question, summed up the game and was out in less than two minutes) following the game,
“Didn’t love our third, but in the end, you build a lead like that, you can…I suppose…the boys defended, and if we made a mistake, Vasy was there for us.”
You can tell that he censored himself a bit around the “you can…I suppose” part. Was he going to say, “you can take a period off”? Probably something along those lines, but he’s been in the game long enough not to say the quiet part out loud.
The Lightning won, that’s really all that matters. They get to wake up on American Thanksgiving in first place. Not a bad place to be.
