Tampa Bay Lightning Highlights: Ondrej Palat Breaks The Ice Against Oilers (Video)
The Triplets are definitely back in business as Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ondrej Palat opens up the scoring against the Edmonton Oilers.
The Tampa Bay Lightning has a lot on the line tonight as they kick off a four-game homestand against the Edmonton Oilers. After drudging through a season filled to the brim with doom and gloom, the light of hope has finally broken through the darkness as the Bolts have started to find their groove and consistently win games.
Should the Lightning emerge victoriously tonight against the Oilers, the team will have extended their current point streak to a whopping seven games. Of course, if the Tampa Bay Lightning is going to take down number eight team in the NHL right now, they are going to have to bring the offense to them.
Thankfully, the newly reunited Triplets were more than prepared for the task. In fact, they wasted very little time in doing just that and taking the pressure to the Edmonton Oilers.
Tampa Bay Lightning
It all started out in the Lightning’s defensive zone as Oilers defenseman Brandon Davidson took a shot at Lightning netminder Ben Bishop. Unfortunately for Davidson, after his stick essentially exploded in his hand, his pass was intercepted by Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov.
Wasting no time at all, Kucherov turned on the afterburners and sped through the neutral zone and into the Lightning’s offensive zone. Nikita Kucherov used his incredible stick handling skills to sell Edmonton Oilers goaltender Laurent Brossoit before passing the puck to his teammate Ondrej Palat.
Palat made it look almost effortless as he immediately drew his stick back and fired the puck on net, sending it flying past Brossoit and into the back of the net.
Watching the Triplets play could easily be compared to watching a master painter deftly move his brush across his canvas. The level of chemistry Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov, and Ondrej Palat have when they are on the ice together is nothing short of uncanny. At sometimes, it’s downright scary.
These three players make things others work incredibly hard to achieve look easy as apple pie. Both Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat are set to become Restricted Free Agents at the conclusion of the 2016-17 season. These are two players Steve Yzerman has to be looking to tie down long term.
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Unfortunately, only time will tell how this story is going to play out. The Tampa Bay Lightning has been relatively quiet heading into the NHL Trade Deadline. It’ll be interesting to see which players enter the month of March with a shiny, new contract.