The Sharks may be terrible, but margin of Tampa Bay Lightning win a rarity

The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the San Jose Sharks 6-0 inside Amalie Arena on Thursday. It’s a win that will probably be forgotten by this time next month because the Sharks are on pace to be one of the worst teams in NHL history.

But going along with comments that Jon Cooper made after the game, the margin of victory the Bolts had isn’t something the team does with regularity.

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When Luke Glendening picked up his first goal as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the third period, and Jonas Johannson wrapped up his second straight shutout, the final score was 6-0 in favor of the good guys.

It may seem like a commonplace win we’ve seen the Lightning have picked up over the years against bad teams, but it really isn’t. As Cooper pointed out:

"“This is the National Hockey League. And I’m a big believer that if you don’t come prepared to play, anybody can beat you.”"

Prior to Thursday night, Tampa Bay had not scored at least six goals and held the other team scoreless since a 2019 meeting with the Dallas Stars.

And prior to the 6-0 win over Dallas, Tampa Bay had not accomplished the feat of scoring at least six while also gaining a shutout since 2006 against the Atlanta Thrashers, when they beat the now defunct franchise 8-0.

And considering Dallas took 32 shots that night in 2019, one could argue that Tampa’s win over San Jose is the most dominant game the Lightning have played since 2006, as the Sharks only mustered 23 shots in their defeat last night.

So, while the San Jose Sharks might wind up being the worst team in the league and possibly one of the worst teams of the salary cap era, winning 6-0 is still something we haven’t seen Tampa teams do with any frequency.