The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Montréal Canadiens 3-1 in Montréal.
Yes – it was a win on the road. Not only that, but in regulation. What will this crazy team think of next, huh?
Even though they won, it wasn’t all sunshine and light. Martin St. Louis is still without a goal in ten games now. (Funny how it’s okay to Tocchet that Marty doesn’t have a goal in ten games, but it’s completely unacceptable when Vinny does that – nice double-standard there.) Victor Hedman was out due to a mild concussion. And Antero Niittymaki had four turnovers, despite his great performance in net.
It was widely agreed upon that Vincent Lecavalier had a great game. He did only have one shot on goal, however. His two hits came in the first period, and then nothing after that. He assisted on the first two goals, so while he was playing well, he wasn’t playing quite as well as people think. He was also only 50-50 in the faceoff circle – which was the best of anyone on Tampa Bay, sadly.
Attitude and moving your feet are everything, I guess. Which is why people thought Alex Tanguay also had a good game – and, admittedly, it was on of the better ones he’s had this season. Tanguay did have a goal, after all. James Wright scored the third goal for the Lightning.
Ryan Malone also had a great first period, but then he sort of fell off as the game went along. He’s one of the few Lightning forwards who aren’t afraid to camp out in front of the opposing goaltender’s net, which is probably where he’s gotten most of his goals this season. It’s certainly where he got his goal against the Canadiens. Both he and Stephane Veilleux had four hits each on the night.
Steven Stamkos was almost invisible. As was Jeff Halpern. And the fourth line was very quiet as well. So when the top line stepped things up, the rest of the team faded into obscurity.
Every game has its silver lining; but then, every game also has its share of rain. The Lightning did improve as their road trip wore on, but they still have a lot of work ahead of them. Their greatest challenge at the moment is to not let all of that momentum go to waste. They have a four-day layoff between games and they’ll need to really work to stay sharp during that time. Otherwise, they’ll end up starting again where they did before.
The Lightning’s next game is Thursday, November 12th, at 7:30 pm ET against the Western Conference’s Minnesota Wild.
