The Tampa Bay Lightning finished a four-game road trip by defeating the New York Rangers 5-1 on Monday night (April 7). The Lightning went 2-1-1 on the trip as they started strong by beating the New York Islanders before losing one-goal contests to the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres.
On this road trip, the Lightning did what they needed to do. They defeated two struggling teams that were on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs. With the win against the Rangers, they got their 45th victory to reach that mark for an NHL-leading eighth time in 11 seasons. Nikita Kucherov keeps adding milestones as he became the fourth player in NHL history with 80 assists in three consecutive seasons — joining Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey and Bobby Orr.
The Lightning had many things to be happy about during this trip, but there were still a few areas of concern.
Road Struggles Solved?
The Lightning are now just 18-18-4 away from Amalie Arena this season. After a convincing win against the Islanders, they could only muster one goal against a Senators team in a position to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2017. It is not that they didn’t play poorly. They held Ottawa to just two goals. They generated numerous grade-A scoring chances, and in the category of giving credit where credit is due, Linus Ullmark was outstanding in this game.
The same could not be said for the loss to the Sabres. The Lightning didn’t have a strong first period. They lacked intensity and were not crisp with the puck, which gave them little time or space to make plays. While the intensity increased in the second period, the execution was not there, especially in the defensive zone, leading to the shootout loss, but at least they picked up a point.
Heading back to New York City, they did enough to defeat a reeling Rangers team that was embarrassed over the weekend by the New Jersey Devils and fell to 18-18-3 at home one year after finishing with 30 wins at Madison Square Garden, thanks in part to an outstanding effort from Andrei Vasilevskiy.
But the question still remains about how well the Lightning can play in the playoffs. For the season, they have a plus-63 goal differential at home compared to a plus-8 on the road. The story is virtually the same on defense, as they have a 2.14 goals-against-average at home compared to 3.05 on the road. These stats explain why the Lightning are 5-2-0 in one-goal games at home but only 3-10-0 on the road.
This trend will not lead to an extended stay in the upcoming playoffs, but the encouraging sign was that the Lightning played much better on this road trip compared to their road trips in March.
Momentum Regained?
Heading into the road trip, the Lightning were in a good position to challenge the Toronto Maple Leafs for the top spot in the Atlantic Division. However, losses in Ottawa and Buffalo put a halt to that momentum.
The win against the Rangers may have helped the Lightning regain momentum before their four-game win streak was snapped in Ottawa. The Rangers, by and large, dominated play 5v5. Overall, they outshot the Lightning 40-23, but Vasilevskiy was brilliant in goal for the Lightning, making 39 saves. But they did enough to secure the victory, and in an 82-game season, that is sometimes all you can ask for.
Head coach Jon Cooper fully knows how important momentum is heading into the playoffs. “Bottom line is you don’t want to roll into the playoffs with your B-game going. You want to have your A-game…We’re in a battle ourselves,” Cooper said after the Islanders’ game. “Ultimately, we’re not in a playoff spot yet, but depending on how things go here, if you have a chance to get home ice, you’d like to get it. So we still have lots to play for.
The Lightning will have a chance to retain their momentum when they head home for four straight games. However, it will not be easy, as the games are against the Maple Leafs, Red Wings, Sabres, and Panthers. The Maple Leafs and Panthers are fighting for playoff position with the Lightning, while the Red Wings still have an outside chance to make the playoffs. But the Lightning will be able to take the success of this road trip into these critical matchups.
Bottom-Six Scoring
One of the concerns throughout the season was the lack of production from the bottom-six forward group. On this four-game road trip, the Lightning got goals from Yanni Gourde , Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Gage Goncalves, along with an empty-netter from Nick Paul. Gourde’s tally, a highlight-reel goal flipping a backhand into the net while falling, was his first in 16 games since the Lightning re-acquired him ahead of the trade deadline in a deal with the Seattle Kraken.
The line of Gourde, Bjorkstrand, and Goncalves has played very well together recently. In recent games, they have put together extended offensive-zone shifts, giving each of these players the chance to hit the scoresheet. There could probably be an argument that this was the best line in both the Ottawa and Buffalo games.
This has been the bulk of the bottom-six for eight straight games, since they have used 11 forwards and seven defensemen while Cam Atkinson and Mitchell Chaffee recover from injuries. This trio’s improved play could not have come at a better time for the Lightning, and it is their play that will be a factor in where the Lightning end up in the standings, and how far they go in the upcoming playoffs.
By going 2-1-1 on this road trip, the Lightning moved to within two points of Toronto for the division lead. They are four points ahead of Florida. The Maple Leafs and Panthers play on Tuesday (April 8) in Sunrise before the Lightning host the Maple Leafs on Wednesday. The Lightning would like to have as much home ice as possible in the playoffs. Whether it happens this year is dependent on how well they play in their final seven regular season games, especially in their remaining head-to-head contests against the Maple Leafs and Panthers.
