“I’ve said this year in and year out. It’s a 10-game window before you even start to see where things go with the players – when they start to feel comfortable and when you start to kind of know what they bring to the table."
The Tampa Bay Lightning had a few different options heading into last night’s game against the New York Islanders. They needed just two points to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and mark their ninth appearance in the past 10 years.
We’ve seen a ramp-up in defensive play from the Lightning as of late. They’ve allowed just three goals over the past four games. Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has been in net for all four of those contests has been cat-like, stopping any isolated scoring chances that make it down in his direction.
“I think what you’re seeing is we’re helping him out more,” said Jon Cooper in the postgame press conference.
The Lightning have been laser focused on limiting opposition chances which has put Vasilevskiy in an overall better position to goaltend.
“With Vas, he’s human. I mean, he’s superhuman, but he’s still human. The chances we’ve given up on rushes and things like that, when you start cutting those out, Vas usually takes care of the rest.”
Similar to the Lightning, the Islanders have been putting the pieces together defensively in the final stretch of the season. They were fresh off a 5-1 victory against the New Jersey Devils on Monday night and a 2-1 shootout victory against the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night where they held Alex Ovechkin to just one shot. That momentum didn't carry over for them on Saturday.
The Lightning opened the scoring late in the first period when Mikhail Sergachev’s shot took a deflection off Romanov’s leg and went right past Sorokin.
Tanner Jeannot doubled the lead in the second period, scoring his sixth goal of the season and his first since joining the Tampa Bay Lightning at the trade deadline. That brought a celebration from the bench and after that, they dug their heels in and pulled away with two more goals in the second period.
“I’ve said this year in and year out. It’s a 10-game window before you even start to see where things go with the players – when they start to feel comfortable and when you start to kind of know what they bring to the table. I think we’re seeing that, definitely, now with Tanner,” said Cooper.
By the end of the final frame, the Lightning locked it up and threw away the key when Brayden Point scored his 48th goal of the season on a power play feed from Kucherov.
Sergachev went on to sustain a lower body injury in that same play. Jon Cooper did not have an update following the conclusion of the game.
The Lightning have scored 156 goals on home ice this season, the most among any team in the NHL.
They hit the road next for one final regular season road trip that begins with back-to-back games against the Rangers and Islanders on Wednesday and Thursday.