Three Notes from the Tampa Bay Lightning Win over Vancouver

After going winless on their first road-trip of the season, the Tampa Bay Lightning righted the ship upon their return home with a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks. Thursday night was the best game of the season overall by the Lightning as they built on the momentum they started in Tuesday’s defeat in Buffalo.

Tampa Bay was powered by two goals from Nikita Kucherov and the best game the Lightning defense have had to date. There were certainly some holes in their game over the whole 60 minutes but they are trending in the right direction.

Better Call Paul

Nick Paul continues to excel as the new net-front man on the Lightning’s top power play unit. After two goals on opening night on the power play, Paul added another Thursday for the opening goal of the game. Paul has three goals on the season and all three have come on the power play in the exact same way. Going right to the front of the net and cleaning up the mess.

Tampa Bay added another power play goal in the third period thanks to a great setup from Paul. Paul came out with the puck from a battle along the boards and teed up a one-timer for Kucherov’s second goal of the game and what would hold up as the game winner. The Lightning power play converted on two of their three opportunities Thursday and Paul was right in the middle of them both.

Getting Depth Scoring

Through the first four games of the season, the Lightning were without a goal from their bottom-six forwards at five-on-five. Tanner Jeannot had a goal Sunday while playing in the top-six with Steven Stamkos out of the lineup. The first true bottom-six goal came from Mikey Eyssimont in the second period Thursday. Eyssimont did exactly what he does best, skate and put the puck on net. He picked out the far-side top corner on the rush and brought the Lightning level at two late in the second period.

In addition to Eyssimont getting his first goal and point on the season on this goal, Conor Sheary and Nick Perbix also did with the assists. The Lightning will need to continue seeing production from the bottom six that has a bunch of new faces in the mix. Thursday was the best that group of forwards have looked so far with Eyssimont leading the way.

Jeannot with the Turning Point

The Lightning’s game was solid for the most part Thursday with the main exception being their start to the second period. They surrendered two goals and the lead in 62 seconds to start the period following a pair of defensive breakdowns stemming from turnovers. Not long after the two Vancouver goals, Tanner Jeannot fought Mark Friedman following some pushing and shoving in front of the net and Jeannot won the fight handedly.

Later in the period after Jeannot’s fight, the Lightning would add two goals within 1:09 of each other to re-take the lead and carry it into the third period. After a flat start to the second period, you cannot overlook the energy brought to the Lightning lineup after Jeannot’s convincing win in the fight that spurred them on to winning the rest of the period 2-0.