Tough love for Brayden Point.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have established one of hockey's winningest cultures in the last decade, resulting in back-to-back Stanley Cup victories and a third consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final. Needless to say, the expectations are high.
And when a player violates those expectations, he must pay the price, regardless of his star status. Lightning forward Brayden Point, one of their top forwards and a key element in their championship success, is being benched by head coach Jon Cooper for reportedly missing a team meeting.
Without Point, the Lightning will take on the rival Boston Bruins on Tuesday night at TD Garden. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 PM EST.
Lightning forward Brayden Point recently reached 600 career points
Point, one of Tampa's top players the last several seasons, recently reached 600 career points in Tampa Bay's victory over the Bruins last week.
“It's really cool,” Point said of the accomplishment. “Obviously very fortunate to play on great teams and with great players, but yeah, it’s really cool.”
“Some guys are gifted, and he just has a gift when he gets in there,” head coach Jon Cooper said of Point earlier this week. “He knows where to put it. He doesn’t shoot it the hardest, he just knows where to put it. Especially in situations where it’s instinctive and he’s got to think quickly.”
Point was taken with the 79th overall pick in the 2014 NHL Draft while he was playing with the WHL's Moose Jaw Warriors, and later began his career with Tampa Bay as a rookie in the 2016-17 season; he appeared in 68 games, scoring 18 goals with 22 assists.
The best season of his career took place in 2022-23; he reached a career-high 51 goals as part of a 95-point campaign. So far this season, he leads the Lightning with 25 goals scored in 37 games played.
Bruins avenge loss to Lightning
David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha each logged a goal and two assists and Jeremy Swayman tied his career-high mark with 43 saves as the Boston Bruins beat the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 on Tuesday night.
Swayman stopped 18 shots in the second period as Boston avenged a 4-1 loss at Tampa Bay last Thursday.
Victor Hedman had a goal and an assist and Connor Geekie also scored for Tampa Bay, which had won three of its last four (3-0-1). Andrei Vasilevskiy made 18 saves.
Following a morning call-up from AHL Providence for his first action with Boston since November, Poitras made an immediate impact when he rushed up the right wing and dished across to a charging Frederic to score the game-opening goal at the 4:24 mark.
The Bruins upped their lead to 2-0 on just six first-period shots at 9:31 as Wotherspoon took Pastrnak's cross-ice pass and unleashed a top-shelf snap shot from the left circle.
Marchand extended the Boston lead to three 1:13 into the second. After Hedman's shot sailed wide of Swayman at the other end of the ice, a quick Pastrnak feed in the neutral zone led his captain down the left side to beat Vasilevskiy high to the blocker side.
Playing at 4-on-4, Pastrnak slotted home Boston's fourth goal at 6:05. After Vasilevskiy stopped Morgan Geekie in the slot, Zacha recovered the puck and dished it to Pastrnak to snap home from the left circle.
Tampa Bay cut within 4-2 before the second intermission, getting on the board first at 8:50 when Connor Geekie tipped home a Hedman point shot from directly in front of Swayman.
With 17.2 seconds left in the period, just after Swayman made a point-blank stop on Nikita Kucherov, Hedman corralled a Kucherov feed and snapped it off after charging into the circle from the left point.
Peeke and Zacha scored short-handed empty-net goals from Boston's own zone within the first 29 seconds of a late penalty kill.
The game featured Boston defenseman Michael Callahan and Tampa Bay center Jack Finley making their NHL debuts.
