Tampa Bay Lightning Highlights: Brayden Point Making His Impact Known (Video)
Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brayden Point makes his presence known late in the first period as he opens up the scoring against the Colorado Avalanche.
The Tampa Bay Lightning has been on quite a roll as of late. It may have taken them a majority of the season, but the Bolts have finally found their groove. One major contributor to their success as of late has been their aggressiveness early in the game and their ability to get on the board first.
One major contributor to this has been Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brayden Point. As the Lightning finish off their back-to-back weekend series against the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Brayden Point wasted no time in opening things up for the Bolts.
Everything gets interesting around the 18-minute mark in the game. Tampa Bay Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin makes his way into the offensive zone with the puck. Under coverage, Drouin passes the puck to Alex Killorn. Killorn, also under intense pressure, ends up passing the puck back to Jake Dotchin at the blueline.
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Dotchin took his time with the puck as he analyzed the situation at hand. It wasn’t long before Dotchin decided to fire the puck to defenseman Victor Hedman, who was patiently waiting on the other side of the blueline.
Much like he did many times last night against the Dallas Stars, Hedman fired the puck towards the net.
The puck goes just wide, but thankfully for the Bolts, it finds its way to the stick of Alex Killorn. Almost like clockwork, Killorn passed the puck to a speeding Brayden Point.
With no hesitation whatsoever, Point pulls back his stick and puts the puck in the back of the net.
At the beginning of the season, the only people who really knew the name Brayden Point were the hardcore fans who have frequented Prospect Development Camp over the last few years. Now, you’d be incredibly hard pressed to find a Lightning fan who doesn’t know his name.
Heading into tonight’s encounter with the Avalanche, Point had already brought home seven goals and 14 assists for a total of 21 points in 43 games this season.
Four of those aforementioned points have come in the last five games. In the last five, Point has brought home two goals and two assists. The 20-year-old forward had a multi-point night on February 11th in the Lightning’s 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets.
It’s difficult to put your finger on exactly how this happens, but Brayden Point has this uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time. In addition to this, Point has incredible speed and puck handling ability. In our humble opinion, his name could be mentioned in the same sentence with a Jonathan Drouin.
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There is still plenty of hockey to be played this evening, but if the Tampa Bay Lightning continue to play the way they have during the first 20 minutes of play, the Lightning should find themselves in a good position when the final buzzer sounds.