After recovering from a sluggish start to this season, the Tampa Bay Lightning are rolling along with an 11-game winning streak.
They will try to set franchise record by winning their 12th straight Friday night when they visit the St. Louis Blues.
“It’s a long way from winning one in our first seven to start the year, I’ll tell you that,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said of the 1-4-2 start. “But there’s just tons of buy-in. Great group, leaders, phenomenal. Check a lot of boxes of things you want in a team.”
The Lightning tied their franchise record for consecutive wins by earning a 2-1 shootout victory over the host Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
With top center Brayden Point sidelined week-to-week with an undisclosed injury suffered Monday night at Philadelphia, Cooper noted that the Lightning “took some risk out of their game” and defeated the Penguins with tight checking.
“We’ve gone through a stretch this year where we were giving (up) one, two goals and not getting any points out of games,” Cooper said.
Tampa Bay has not lost since Dec. 18, a 2-1 home setback to the Los Angeles Kings. The Lightning defeated the Blues 4-1 on Dec. 22 in the second game of their winning streak.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves in that game for Tampa Bay and defenseman Darren Raddysh had a goal and two assists. Jake Guentzel and Nikita Kucherov each had two assists.
Kucherov had 10 goals and 15 assists during a 10-game point streak that ended Tuesday. Vasilevskiy has won his last eight starts.
“All the guys are pulling in the same direction,” Cooper said. “We lost a few before we went on this streak, but I thought we were playing pretty well. It’s hard to say that when guys aren’t getting rewarded, but they’re getting rewarded right now and it’s a lot of fun.”
The Blues snapped a three-game losing skid with a 3-0 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.
The Blues got defensive forward Nick Bjugstad back after he missed 15 games with an upper-body injury. But top center Robert Thomas (lower-body injury) and key defenseman Philip Broberg (concussion protocol) were sidelined after getting hurt on the team’s recent 0-3-0 road trip.
That forced the Blues to play an even more defensive-minded game against Carolina, as the Lightning did against the Penguins.
“I thought tonight was the smartest game we’ve played as far as playing a simple but very effective game,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “Making them turn (back for pucks), being really reliant on our forecheck and playing fast. I thought the little details and habits within our game, blocked shots, net-front block outs, were the best they’ve been all year.
“We got a forecheck goal and we had two great forecheck chances alone in the first (period) and it just kept happening, especially in the third,” Montgomery continued. “I liked the way we played with the lead in the third. We didn’t sit back. We played going at them, an aggressive style, which is the way you want to play, and we had opportunities to extend that lead.”
Montgomery said there is a possibility Broberg will play against the Lightning. Thomas — the team leader in points (33) and assists (22) and co-leader in goals (11) — landed on injured reserve on Thursday and is expected to miss at least the next two weeks.
–Field Level Media
