Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 25 shots he faced, grabbing his first shutout of the season in a 4-0 victory.
There was a sense of nostalgia at Amalie Arena last night. Old videos of Victor Hedman were circulating as he celebrated skating in his 1,000th game with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Former teammates Ondrej Palat, Pat Maroon, Ryan McDonagh and Alex Killorn sent video messages that were projected on the big screen, giving fans and the players a vivid reminder of when the team won back-to-back Stanley Cups. While many of the players from that group have moved on to other teams, best friends Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos are still very much a presence in Tampa.
“You can tell the true love those guys have for each other and this city and the team,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper.
“To be a part of these things, knowing that all the winning we've done in between and the ups and the downs.. that's what memories are. And these are ones we'll take with us forever.”
While the “Cup days” are incredible to look back on, the new Lightning team had a lot they wanted to prove last night. After going down 8-1 in Dallas on Saturday, the Bolts had the opportunity to start re-writing the script on their season.
Nikita Kucherov who's having a historic season himself, opened up the scoring 7:47 into the first period. Anthony Cirelli followed that up with a goal of his own, making it 2-0 heading into the first intermission.
The score remained unchanged throughout the second period but Vasilevskiy continued to look sharp and the Bolts defended their lead well.
Former Dallas Star, Luke Glendening made a highlight-worthy goal for the Bolts after blocking a shot in his zone, recovering the puck and then beating Jake Oettinger. Cirelli sealed the game with his second goal of the night.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was as sharp as ever, stopping all 25 shots he faced and grabbing his first shutout of the season in a 4-0 victory.
"It's been pretty hard the first few games for me like on the road against Carolina and then high-altitude in Colorado but I thought the guys played really well in front of me," Vasilevskiy said on his return so far.
"Unfortunately, we didn't get much luck in those games but I thought tonight, the whole team played great and a great result because of it."
The Lightning will get one more rematch Wednesday night against the Penguins before hitting the road.