Tampa Bay Lightning Crush San Jose with Another Jonas Johansson Shutout

The Tampa Bay Lightning took advantage of a lowly San Jose Sharks team Thursday night on the way to winning two games in a row for the first time this season. San Jose came in without a win this season and left without a win as the Lightning dominated them from the jump and Jonas Johansson now has two straight shutouts following Thursday’s 6-0 win.

With the win, Tampa Bay remains unbeaten outside of the Atlantic Division in their four games. Thursday night’s win was further indication that their game is continuing to trend in the right direction.

Focus Out of the Gate

The San Jose Sharks are probably on their way to being the worst team in the NHL this season. If there was ever a time for the Lightning to downplay their opponent,  this was it. Tampa Bay played with noticeable urgency out of the gate in the first period and they took the game over and never let San Jose have a chance of getting back into the game.

Tampa Bay finished the first period up 3-0 with three different goal scorers including Brayden Point getting a goal in his second straight game less than two minutes in.

Jon Cooper after the game said “if you don’t come prepared to play, any team can beat you”. The Lightning clearly came prepared based on how they came out from the opening puck drop and they never let their foot off the gas.

No Cookie Monsters

The Lightning went up big in this one and they went up early. Tampa Bay led 5-0 after two periods. One of the most impressive things about their game was that they maintained their focus while playing with a big lead. Players were not pushing to try and get garbage time points and risk getting out of position defensively.

The Lightning allowed only nine shots against in the third period and did not force the play offensively. The focus was all on sticking to the process and defending. The one bit of offense they had was from Luke Glendening for his first Lightning goal after being the beneficiary of a couple lucky bounces.

Johansson Continues to be a Story

Jonas Johansson is taking serious advantage of the opportunity he has been afforded in Tampa. 120 minutes without allowing a goal in the NHL is impressive regardless of the opponent. The Lightning defense has been improving steadily over the last few games but Johansson has had all of the answers in the Lightning crease.

Johansson’s solid play should keep the Lightning in a fine position while Andrei Vasilevskiy gets back to full health. He has gone more than above what has been asked of him in the early going and there is not much more you can say about him. He has been awesome.