Tampa Bay Lightning Bring Home Victory In Hard-Hitting Game

The Tampa Bay Lightning make their first move in finishing off the preseason right with a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars at the Amalie Arena.

The Tampa Bay Lightning went into last night’s encounter against captain Jamie Benn and the Dallas Stars with one thing in mind, getting back on track and making sure they are prepared when the new season kicks off on October 8^th. Thanks to a late goal and a lot of thrown fists, the Lightning were able to do just that.

Don’t get us wrong, there were quite a few things in last night’s game that still need attention, but we will get to that a little bit later. Right now, let’s take a look at some of the higher points that led to the Lightning’s victory.

The first, and one of the most important, things that happened in last night’s game is that the Tampa Bay Lightning hit the ice with glorious purpose and struck first blood with a goal from right wing Nikita Kucherov just thirty three seconds into the game. Unfortunately, last night was not exactly the best night for the Lightning, especially if your name is Nikita Kucherov.

Just moments after he scored the opening goal of the game, Kucherov seemed to go down rather hard on the ice. After spending a few moments on his hands and knees, he was attended to by the Lightning’s medical staff. The good news is, Kucherov was able to skate off the ice under his own power. The bad news is, this is the last time we would see Kucherov as he was said to have sustained a lower body injury.

This is where things start to get rather interesting. If we were to say that last night was “Fight Night in Tampa Bay,” we still may be making the understatement of the year. Just over the halfway mark in the game, the Tampa Bay Lightning seemed to finally have had enough of the chipping from the Dallas Stars and decided to push back with a little chipping of their own. Of course, by chipping we really mean Brian Boyle’s fists of fury.

After Boyle laid it all on the line against Stars left wing Antoine Roussel, both men were sent to the penalty box for 5 minutes for Fighting. Everything was pretty cut and dry. Well…just about three minutes later, Boyle and Roussel would get some company in the penalty box as Mike Angelidis and Curtis McKenzie would trade blows, which ended with both players getting a one-way ticket to the sin bin for five minutes.

When the second period kicked off, it seemed as if much of the hostility had calmed down a little. Unfortunately, this did not mean the end of penalty time for either side. The Lightning would be called to the box twice, once by Jonathan Marchessault (who served the bench minor for Too Many Men on the Ice) and once by Nikita Nesterov (who went off for Slashing Patrick Eaves.)

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Just when you thought the evening of hard-hitting, fist-flying action was over, well…it wasn’t. As Curtis McKenzie found his way past Bishop to tie the game up for the Stars, yet another fight, or should we say brawl, broke out. This little scuffle opened up the door for the Tampa Bay Lightning to retake the lead as Valtteri Filppula scored his first goal of the preseason with the help of Alex Killorn and Nikita Nesterov.

Before the horn would sound to end the second period, the penalty boxes on both sides of the ice would become a standing room only affair. Luke Witkowski and Vernon Fiddler would sit for two minutes for Roughing while both Brian Boyle and Travis Moen would be hit with ten minute misconduct penalties.

Less than five minutes later, Witkowski would find himself back in the box along with Jamie Oleksiak, both with 5 minute majors for Fighting. We don’t know about you, but we are starting to see a recurring theme here.

The Tampa Bay Lightning would find themselves on the Power Play in the early moments of the third period, and once again would find their fair share of difficulties. Unfortunately, this time those difficulties resulted in a short-handed goal for the Stars. Valeri Nichushkin would fire a backhander that would make its way into the back of the net and once again tie the game for the Stars.

As the Tampa Bay Lightning entered the final five minutes of the game, they knew that something had to be done if they were going to bring home the win in front of their hometown crowd. This is where young right wing J.T. Brown comes in.

Brown lined up a shot and went top shelf on Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen to give the Lightning the final push they needed to bring home the win. The assists on the J.T. Brown goal went to Jonathan Drouin and Andrej Sustr.

We must say that Jonathan Drouin has quickly become one of the standouts of the preseason for the Tampa Bay Lightning. After last night’s encounter with Dallas, Drouin has scored 3 goals and 3 assists for a total of six points to accompany his preseason plus/minus rating of plus-2.

This places Drouin and fourth place in the NHL in terms of points. This is definitely the kind of play we want to see continue into the regular season.

On the flip side, one of the things that has been a major hindrance to the Lightning in the preseason has been their lackluster Power Play. Going 0/5 on Power Play opportunities is one thing, but when you start allowing your opponents to score short-handed goals, there is something much more deeply rooted going on here; something that needs to be corrected immediately.

The Tampa Bay Lightning find themselves in a position where they could very well make another solid run towards making it to the Stanley Cup Finals this season, and if they want to end result to differ from that of the 2014-15 season, the Power Play is one of the areas that will need some definite work.

The other detraction that we saw from last night’s game is their passing. Slowly, but surely, they seem to be falling back into the bad habit of overpassing the puck. As most of you know, this led to quite a few turnovers last season the Lightning would love to get back. Unfortunately, we all know how that works.

We would like to see the players take a lot more chances in front of the net. There is one surefire way to throw a goalie off of his game, and that is to pepper him with shots. When you find yourself in a good position in front of the net, take the shot. If it doesn’t go in, fight for the rebound.

Also, we would like to see more players taking advantage of the corners and coming in from the blue line. These are all things that could help the puck find the back of the net more efficiently.

All in all, the Tampa Bay Lightning had a good showing against the Dallas Stars. Judging by the reaction of the fans in the arena last night, they are incredibly pleased the Lightning has decided to stop taking smack from their opponents and standing up for themselves when the moment arises. The only way to make something like this stop is to push back and let them know we won’t take that kind of thing here in Tampa Bay.

The Tampa Bay Lightning has just one more game between now and the Lightning Home Opener on October 8^th. Tomorrow night, the Lightning head down to Sunrise, Florida to the BB&T Center to go head-to-head with their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers. After last night’s performance here in Tampa, we can’t wait to see what the Lightning has in store for us in Sunrise.

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