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Ticked-Off Tampa Bay Lightning Squad Invades Dallas on a Road-Trip Mission

By Angelo Resciniti

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 When angry, count to four;

 when very angry, swear.

                            — Mark Twain

 Everybody kind of perceives me as being angry.

 It’s not anger, it’s motivation.

                                                                — Roger Clemens

A ticked-off AND highly motivated Tampa Bay Lightning team invades Dallas on Thursday for the first face-off this season with the high-scoring Dallas Stars.

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The likely testy match begins just after 8:30 p.m. Tampa time at the American Airlines Center in Big D. The game will be telecast locally on Sun Sports and radiocast on 970/WFLA.

Yes, the Bolts are ticked off, a term used by coach Jon Cooper on Tuesday to describe the mood of his players. And the anger has nothing to do with the Dallas Stars. But the Stars are undoubtedly going to hear some of Mark Twain’s predicted swearing when the boys in white and blue take to the ice.

Losing a game late can certainly be upsetting, and the Bolts lost 2-1 in overtime to the St. Louis Blues Tuesday evening. Losing a game that was virtually in the bag can be even more upsetting.

The Lightning led the Blues 1-0 as the clock ticked down to the three minute mark in the third period. Then Vladimir Tarasenko roofed a seeing-eye wrister over the glove of Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop to tie the game. Jaden Schwartz netted the game-winner early in overtime to give the Blues the win, sending the Lightning back on the road with but one Pyrrhic point to show for the game.

The Lightning team is still a splendid 22-0-2 when leading after two periods this year, but losing a game after playing arguably the best road hockey of the season, dominating a stellar St. Louis team at both ends of the ice for most of the 60 minutes…well, that can be downright infuriating.

"“That’s a tough one to swallow,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said to Tampa Bay beat writer Bryan Burns. “I thought we were the better team by far tonight.”"

So the Bolts will arrive in Dallas in a foul mood, carrying a festering array of motivational forces onto the ice:

  • They want to maintain their lead in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. An imposing 32-15-5 record gives the Bolts 69 points, two better than Montreal and Detroit.
  • They aim to break a four-game road losing streak that goes back to the January 12th failure in Philly, followed by being brutalized in Boston, crestfallen in Carolina, and stunned in St. Louis. Admittedly, they improved their road play in each successive defeat.
  • They intend to make the recent steadfast goaltending play stand up. The Bolts have given up two goals or less in six of their last seven games, winning all but the St. Louis game. And while Ben Bishop has been in net for most of those strong efforts, it would not surprise to see rookie Andrei Vasilevskiy starting against the Stars while Bishop rests for the Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings at home on Saturday.
  • They strive to surround the recent hot offensive play of rookies Cedric Paquette and Jonathan “Cool Hand” Drouin with scoring from Stamkos and the recently cooled-down Triplets line of Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, and Nikita Kucherov. Paquette, named the NHL’s No. 2 star for last week, became the first rookie in Lightning history to score goals in four straight games with his tally against the Blues. He has banged in six goals in those four games. Drouin has a four-game assist streak going as well, most of those helpers going to the stick of linemate Paquette.
  • They crave to show the Stars why the Bolts lead the league in average points per game at 3.17. Dallas is second in the NHL with 3.14 goals per game.
  • They desire to grab three out of four points on this short two-game road swing, in turn moving their road record of 11-11-4 away from the dark side. Right now the Bolts do have the worst road record of the four division leaders, and that is a must-fix if Tampa Bay intends to make much of an impression in the playoffs.

Despite Dallas’s high-scoring offense the Stars have struggled this season due to a porous defense and a tough division. The Stars have a winning record — 23-19-8 — and 54 points but still are in last place in the Central Division of the Western Conference. The team has scored 159 goals this season, 66 coming during the second period to lead the NHL in scoring for that frame. But the Stars have given up 162 goals, 4th most in the league.

Youthful scoring phenom Tyler Seguin (28 goals and 28 assists) has been in the race for the Rocket Richard trophy all season and currently ranks third in goals behind Alex Ovechkin and Rick Nash. Seguin is also tied for second in points.

Jamie Benn and Jason Spezza have also picked up big points for Dallas. Left winger Antoine Roussel leads the team in penalty minutes with 95 and is most likely to do the dirty work if the Bolts turn their anger into extra physical play.

Kari Lehtonen still gets most of the goaltender minutes for the Stars. He has been in net for 21 of the team’s 23 victories. Former Lightning netminder Anders Lindback has struggled to a 2-7 record this season with a 3.79 goals against average and .875 save percentage in a backup role.

The Lightning continue to lead the NHL in scoring with 167 goals, five more than those bothersome Blues. Tampa Bay’s +32 goal differential is still tops in the East and 4th best in the league.

Steven Stamkos is 4th in the league in scoring behind Ovechkin, Nash, and Seguin, with 27 goals. Tyler Johnson continue to lead Tampa Bay in points with 49, tied for 10th overall. Nikita Kucherov maintains his No. 1 spot in plus/minus with +27 while Johnson is tied for 3rd at +25, showing that the Triplets (Ondrej Palat is at +23) have continued their excellent two-way play even during the recent scoring drought.

Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop ranks 4th in the NHL in wins with his remarkable 26-8-3 record. Newly-minuted official backup Andrei Vasilevskiy, promoted for good from the farm club in Syracuse earlier this week following the waiver of veteran goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, has a 3-1 record, a 1.79 GAA, and a .937 save percentage in his earlier games with Tampa Bay. For a full-time goalkeeper this season, by the way,  the 1.79 and .937 would both lead the NHL right here right now.

This is the first of two meetings this season for the Stars and the Bolts. They next play on March 7th in Tampa.

In the meantime, cue up a little taste of Metallica’s St. Anger as the Tampa Bay Lightning’s theme song.

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