The win streak is over, but the message is sent: The Tampa Bay Lightning will not be letting this season pass them by.
The Bolts were firmly into the "no, really" zone when they won their last game before the Christmas break to start a victory streak that crested with a 1-0 win over Philadelphia on Saturday and ended 24 hours later with a 3-1 setback to the New Jersey Devils. (More on them later).
On the day the run started, the only things below sixth-place Tampa in the Atlantic Division were Ottawa, Detroit and pond scum. Now on Monday, the Lightning are in second place, holding a four-point cushion over third-place Toronto while enjoying a game in hand on the Leafs.
I’m about two years into just reflexively picking Tampa for the Cup each fall, assuming that one of these years I have to be right. That same "it’s gotta happen" mindset guided the conversation around the treading-water team for two months this year, but it was starting to get dicey as the Bolts skated through most of December without getting their act together.
What changed? Tampa has gone to a super-line at the top of the lineup, putting Steven Stamkos on the left side with Brayden Point in the middle and Nikita Kucherov on the right. All three guys have scored at a point-per-game clip since Dec. 23, which might seem predicable but still qualifies as welcomed news. Don’t forget, Kucherov was actually benched for a period by coach Jon Cooper in a game versus Ottawa that occurred just before Tampa took flight. And while Stamkos in particular was producing even before things clicked for the team, Point had off-season hip surgery that forced him to miss the season-opener and surely he wasn’t feeling his best out of the gate and beyond.
Victor Hedman has gone full beast mode, notching 12 points in his past 11 outings and playing about four minutes per night more than any other Tampa skater during that time. As for Andrei Vasilevskiy, he remains on a personal eight-game winning streak and has just one regulation-time loss in his past 14 contest, going 12-1-1 with a .933 save percentage in that period.
Those are all names we’ve come to expect great things from, but Alex Killorn continues to surprise with his age-30 season surge. Always a steady contributor, Killorn has kicked things to a whole new level, tracking a 70-point showing that would smash his previous best of 47.
What could be more Tampa than a third-rounder finding another gear and continuing to toss egg on the faces of all the teams that saw limitations where the Lightning spotted attributes? The franchise has quite a history of making good decisions, not only at the draft table, but in all aspects of the business. That’s why a number of us keeping calling a Cup for Tampa — a prediction that could never be validated by three weeks of regular-season hockey, but nonetheless looks a lot better today than it did a short time ago.
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Other Weekend Takeaways
• Roughly six months after leaving the 2019 NHL Draft with first-overall pick Jack Hughes and acquired-for-pennies P.K. Subban, Ray Shero is out as Devils GM. The surprising news broke about 90 minutes before New Jersey beat Tampa on Sunday and I’ll be very curious to see what we learn in coming days. A short trip around the Twitterverse tells you nobody really saw this one coming. Maybe it’s no more complicated than ownership wanting an accelerated timeline for winning? Stay tuned.
• The Nashville Predators — who had one of the worst team save percentages in the league under former coach Peter Laviolette — squeezed out a 1-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday afternoon. Juuse Saros got his first shutout of the season, meaning new coach John Hynes has already got a goal out of Pekka Rinne (on Thursday versus the Hawks) and a perfect game from Saros. I guess the man knows how to inspire his stoppers.
• The Pacific Division really has become a complete jump ball, with just two points separating first (Calgary and Arizona are tied with 55 points) from fifth (Edmonton, 53). The gaps from top spot to fifth in the three other divisions are 13 points in the Metro, 16 in the Central and 18 in the Atlantic.
• What a season for David Perron. The 31-year-old scored for the third straight game on Saturday during the Blues’ 5-2 win over the Rangers. Naturally, it was the game-winner — Perron leads the entire league in that category with eight and is on pace for a career-best 36 tallies. All of this is why he’ll be skating in front of the hometown fans at the All-Star game in a couple of weeks.
• Jonathan Huberdeau became the Florida Panthers all-time leading scorer on Sunday thanks to a one-and-one versus the Leafs. Since the start of last season, only six players in the league have put up more points than Huberdeau’s 153.
• It was a huge welcome back party for "Little Joe" in San Jose on Saturday. Joe Pavelski may not be killing it in Dallas this year, but the 205th overall pick in 2003 has done pretty well for himself during a 14-year career. I suspect the former Sharks captain will come up with a huge tip-in or two for the Stars come playoff time.
San Jose still loves you, Pavs.pic.twitter.com/jMmipK2wbl
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) January 12, 2020
Red and White Power Rankings
1. Toronto Maple Leafs (24-16-6) – Frederik Andersen has been yanked in two of his past three starts, as the hook came out during the 8-4 shellacking Florida laid on the Leafs Sunday night.
2. Calgary Flames (25-17-5) — Five straight wins for the Flames, who are atop the Pacific based on having played one fewer game than the Coyotes. Calgary’s goal differential is minus-eight; the other three division leaders are St. Louis (plus-24), Washington (plus-26) and Boston (plus-35).
3. Vancouver Canucks (25-17-4) – Two massive road wins (over Buffalo and Minnesota) for the Canucks on the weekend after a week in which they allowed 14 total goals while getting stomped in two Florida stops.
4. Winnipeg Jets (24-18-4) – Six straight home losses for the Jets after the setback versus Nashville. Defenceman Tucker Poolman also left the game with a lower-body injury as Winnipeg just can’t catch a break on the back end.
5. Edmonton Oilers (24-18-5) – You know taking the 4-3 ‘L’ against their provincial rivals on Saturday hurt, but Kailer Yamamoto registered two assists in that game and has looked great in a half-dozen contests with the team so far.
6. Montreal Canadiens (19-20-7) – Ilya Kovalchuk’s overtime winner in Ottawa on Saturday — his first goal as a member of the club — snapped the Habs’ second eight-game losing streak of the season and prevented the Canadiens from sinking to the bottom of this list.
7. Ottawa Senators (16-22-7) – Marcus Hogberg continues to show a little something in the crease while countryman Ander Nilsson is sidelined with a concussion.
In Your Ear
Co-host Rory Boylen and I took stock of the Canadian teams at the halfway point on the latest episode of Tape-to-Tape.
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The Week Ahead
• Zack Kassian will have a hearing on Monday with the NHL Player Safety Department for taking Matthew Tkachuk matters into his own hands on Saturday night.
• Sidney Crosby watch is on: Will he be ready to return from sports hernia surgery on Tuesday against the Wild?
• It’s a big rivalry week in New York as the Rangers and Islanders play at Madison Square Garden on Monday before a return match goes Thursday night at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
