Callahan Sets Winning Tone Early, Bolts Blast Isles in Return to Form

Back in ye olden times, wearing an “A” on the chest was not such a good thing.

Just ask Hester Prynne, forward (quite, at that), for the Boston Puritans in the original Atlantic Division, coached by the legendary Nathaniel Hawthorne. Her scarlet “A” decidedly did not mean “All-Star” (except to Arthur Dimmesdale, maybe).

But nowadays in the National Hockey League, “A” means “alternate captain,” and wearing the “A” is an earned distinction. The Tampa Bay Lightning have used alternating “alternate captains” so far this season, with coach Jon Cooper moving around the “A” among worthy candidates such as Victor Hedman, Eric Brewer, Valtteri Filppula, Brenden Morrow, Brian Boyle, Matt Carle, Anton Stralman, and Ryan Callahan. Several of these stalwarts, Bolts veterans, have worn the “A” for the team in the past, and two of the newcomers spent years as captains of their former teams — Morrow for the Dallas Stars and Callahan for the New York Rangers — and wore the “C” that now rightfully belongs to Steve Stamkos on the Lightning. Cooper has said he will eventually name permanent alternate captains, which will not only save the team money on removing and re-sewing large A’s on jerseys but will make official the team’s leadership group for this very promising season.

The time is NOW to put an “A” on the chest of Ryan Callahan, and to leave it there. His play last night in the 5-2 Bolts victory over the streaking New York Islanders dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s on what was already all but official: the man is a leader, and leaders lead. And this leader led the Lightning to a fast start and a dominant win over an Islanders team that was maybe tired in closing out a road-trip with back-to-back games but which also was riding a five-game win streak. Put the “A” on Ryan Callahan.

Nov 15, 2014; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Ryan Callahan (24) and defenseman Jason Garrison (5) congratulate each other after they beat the New York Islanders at Amalie Arena. Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the New York Islanders 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Lightning entered the game versus the Islanders coming off a pair of losses, the first pair of back-to-back losses this season, one in a shoot-out (to/in Chicago) and then a 2-1 loss in regulation to the San Jose Sharks at home. In those two defeats the Bolts gave up a gazillion shots early and fell behind before re-energizing in the late stages of the game the make it close. Too little too late. The theme of Saturday night’s game was to get off to an aggressive start and to limit shots, especially to the hot New York duo of John Tavares (“C”) and Kyle Okposo (“A”) who had blazed the Islanders to a tie, at 11-5-0, for the best start in franchise history. Yes, these Isles were favorably stacking up with the 1980’s Stanley Cup teams led by Mike Bossy, Clark Gillies, and Bryan Trottier, the “Trio Grande” of Islander lore. The Bolts aimed to knock New York onto its Big Apple.

Tampa Bay began the game with the kind of high energy and physical determination that coaches, players, and fans had all been awaiting. Just 40 seconds into play, Callahan took the Isles by its borough and buried his checker into the boards, rattling the glass with a shot heard round the arena. The tone had been set. The aggressive start was in full swing. Alex Killorn (uncredited), Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov, Radko Gudas, and Brenden Morrow all followed with big hits of their own. For nearly eight minutes the frequent-shooter Islanders (3rd in the NHL in shots with a 32.6 per game average) were limited to ZERO shots by the Bolts. Unfortunately, Brock Nelson — with helpers from Tavares and Okposo — put that very first shot past Ben Bishop to give New York a 1-0 lead.

A minute later, Ryan Callahan, still leading the way, collected a rebound of a booming Jason Garrison shot and wristed it past goalie Chad Johnson to tie the score at 1-1. The Islanders took back the lead at 8:42 when Josh Bailey deflected a shot past Ben Bishop just as an Isles power play ran down. The unexpected run-and-gun continued. As a 5-on-3 rolled into a 5-on-4 power play for the Bolts, Stamkos faked a shot from his office in the left circle and passed to Filppula to the right side of the net. The crafty Filppula took a bad angle shot and beat Johnson high. 2-2. Less than two minutes later the surprising rookie Cedric Paquette, playing in place of fellow but more highly-touted rookie Jonathan “Cool Hand” Drouin, scored his fifth goal of the season (in just nine games) from the slot to give the Lightning a 3-2 lead.

That was it for the Islanders as Ben Bishop and the Lightning defense held steady the rest of the way. The Bolts kept the Isles skaters at the perimeter for much of their offensive time. And when a skater did break through for some one-on-one time with Bishop, “Big Ben” came up large and snuffed out all chances. At the other end of the ice the Bolts showed the kind of puck control and earned the amount of zone time that had characterized their victorious form from before their two-game skid. The Lightning extended the lead to 4-2 in the second period on a Tyler Johnson goal set up by patience and passing precision from Ondrej Palat. Late in the third period Radko Gudas unleashed a seeing-eye wrist shot from just inside the blue line that zipped past Johnson, giving the bruising Gudas his first goal of the season and cementing the 5-2 final score. Ryan Callahan, naturally, earned the only assist on Gudas’ goal. From start to finish Callahan’s imprint was all over this game.

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The victory enlarged Tampa Bay to a 12-4-2 record and kept the Bolts in second place in the Atlantic Division behind Montreal. The Lightning’s 26 points is tied for second best in all of the NHL. And Tampa Bay’s 66 goals scored is No. 1 in the league, six more than the high-scoring Pittsburgh Penguins. Oh, and the five goals scored against the Isle was more than they had given up in their four previous games, wins all, combined. The team travels north for a Monday night match with the New York “RangeBolts” at Madison Square Garden before a return bout with the Islanders on Tuesday in their Long Island barn.

After the game the media announced its three stars.

Ryan Callahan was named No. 1 star.

And before too long he should be wearing a permanent “A” on his chest as well, if that’s not too forward to suggest.

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