Stamkos, Bishop Buoy Bolts in Motown Shoot-out for 6th Straight Victory
O Captain! My Captain!
by Walt Whitman
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won…
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won…
I know it is a little early in the season to be parading around Walt Whitman’s amazing allegory celebrating leadership — and applying it to Steven Stamkos, o captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning — but, hey, it kind of fits. So let’s carpe diem all over the place, just like Steven Stamkos did Sunday night in front of a scarlet sea of rabid Red Wings fans in “The Joe” in Detroit.
Big-time players play big in big games.
Steven Stamkos seized the day in arguably the biggest game of the still-green Lightning season, scoring two goals and skating like a dervish on both ends of the rink in captaining (now an official word) the Bolts to a 4-3 shoot-out victory over THE Detroit Red Wings.
When exhausted Tampa Bay fans went to sleep after the game the 11-3-1 Bolts and their 23 points stood all alone, No. 1, atop the NHL standings. By morning the Anaheim Ducks had gone into overtime on the west coast, earned a point, and stood on the hilltop along with the Lightning. Again, the season is young and the hilltop turns into a mountaintop by next summer when only one team can declare “the prize we sought is won.” It takes a great captain to lead a team to the top of that seemingly K1 peak. Steven Stamkos just might have that greatness in him.
How big is Stamkos right now?
The referee skated to the bench and apologized to Stammer for not seeing No. 91’s shot hammer in-and-out of the goal in the second period. The shot is quicker than the eye. The goal was waved off. Play continued. During the next break a video review showed what Stamkos and Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard already knew to be true, that the laser-like shot had gone top shelf and ricocheted out of the net. All in the blink of an eye. A hockey referee never has to say he’s sorry, but this ref skated to the bench and apologized to Steven Stamkos. And Stammer laughed good-naturedly, an anyone-can-make-a-mistake glint in his eye, the glint turning to cold steel on his next shift on the ice. He is as big a star as the NHL’s got right now, this captain of the Bolts.
Going into the game some fans and analysts feared a Lightning letdown. This was the second half of a back-to-back and the Bolts were 1-2 in three previous second games. The night before, a 7-4 romp over the Columbus Blue Jackets, revealed a loose-skating tendency on defense and a proclivity towards giving up goals on the power play. And even though the Red Wings scored a power play goal of their own less than seven minutes into this game, taking a quick 1-0 lead, the Lightning were already skating hard and the thought of a letdown seemed far away. Even after Howard robbed Cedric Paquette of a sure goal from close in a few minutes later the Bolts were unfazed. Detroit erred its way to a 5-on-3 for Tampa Bay. Valtteri Filppula to Ryan Callahan to o captain Steven Stamkos, blistering one-timer (this one visible to the naked eye), and a 1-1 tie.
Early in the second period Stamkos seemingly hit the crossbar with a vicious slap shot on another sterling pass from Callahan…I apologize, we’ve already talked about that weak wave-off. See, I apologize to Stammer. The ref apologizes to Stammer. But from Stammer, as from Nirvana, no apologies. Lightning lead, 2-1.
Nov 9, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Ryan Callahan (24) scores an shootout goal on Detroit Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard (35) at Joe Louis Arena. Tampa Bay won 4-3 in an overtime shootout. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Hot-handed Tyler Johnson got into the act four minutes later, one-timing (seems to be a trend here) a pass from Ondrej Palat into a 3-1 advantage for the Bolts.
Midway through the second period Darren Helm skated down the left side and beat Bishop with a pinpoint shot, cutting the Lightning lead to 3-2. Another power play goal given up by the Bolts, something like the seventh in four games, and one of the only sore points in an otherwise complete effort for Tampa Bay. At this point in the match the Red Wings had taken only 10 shots, eight of them on the power play and two of those into the strings. 5-on-5 the Bolts were dominant, allowing only two shots on goal at even strength.
Detroit came out flying in the third period, but the Bolts seemed up to the challenge. Midway through the frame Gustav Nyquist — the leading goal scorer in the NHL since January 20th of this year — skated in close, right to left, and put in a wrist shot over Bishop’s shoulder. 3-3.
Then Ben Bishop stood tall (literally and figuratively), making a huge save with six minutes left. The line of Cedric Paquette, Nikita Kucherov, and Jonathan “Cool Hand” Drouin earned some hard-won time in the Detroit zone, with Kucherov just missing a potential game-winner at the four minute mark.
Overtime was fairly uneventful until the end, when Bishop stopped a scary close-in chance by Niklas Kronwall and Howard sealed the post to stop a Drouin wraparound try with just 20 seconds left.
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The shoot-out belonged to Bishop and the Bolts. All three Detroit snipers challenged Bish’s five-hole and Ben bent not, making three solid saves. Ryan Callahan, first up for the Lightning, deked left to right and slid the puck past Howard. That’s all the Bolts needed. Lightning 4, Red Wings 3. Tampa Bay’s winning streak upped to six, the team’s longest in over three years, and the Bolts went to bed atop the NHL standings.
Former New York Rangers o captain Ryan Callahan only had two primary assists and the game-winning shootout goal for the Lightning, but the night belonged to o captain Steven Stamkos.
“The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won…” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper after the big victory (maybe a loose interpretation of his words).
On to the Patrick Sharp-less Chicago Blackhawks Tuesday night to close out this three-game road trip, already successful at 2-0-0.
And then the Bolts come home to face the San Jose Sharks, declaring, “The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won…” Or something like that. Ask Steven Stamkos.
O Captain! My Captain!