The Tampa Bay Lightning put together a solid effort on Tuesday night and walked away with a 5-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. Impressive from start to finish, the Lightning got on the board early and followed up by notching tallies often. Buoyed by great goaltending from Ben Bishop, solid defense from everyone on the backend, and dynamic offense from the forwards, the Lightning simply outmatched the 2012 Stanley Cup champions.

It didn’t take long for the Lightning to give the 16,000-plus in attendance at the Forum something to cheer about. Just nineteen seconds into the contest, Sami Salo fired a shot from the point that Ryan Malone deflected past Jonathan Quick. Martin St. Louis was credited with the second assist, his first of three points on the evening. That assist was Marty’s 900th point in a Lightning uniform. There aren’t enough words in the English language to describe what a great story Marty’s career has been.

Teddy Purcell doubled the Lightning lead just under thirteen minutes into the opening frame when he wired home a wicked wrist shot; Ondrej Palat and Matt Carle assisted on the play. Purcell was a force to be reckoned with all night long. Playing against his former team, Purcell clearly felt as though he had something to prove.

Just remember that the Lightning dealt Jeff Halpern to the Kings in exchange for Purcell and a 3rd round pick. That deal was nothing less than highway robbery, as Purcell has become a very impressive top six scoring threat for the Lightning since joining the team back in 2010. With his goal and assist tonight, Purcell now has eight points in six games to start the season.

Ben Bishop was perfect in the first period, stopping all ten shots the Kings fired his way. Solid all night, Bishop did more than just give the Lightning a chance to win in his return from injury. He ended up stopping 30 of 31 shots from the Kings. Given his play to start the season, highlighted by a 4-0-0 record, 1.71 goals-against average, and 0.939 save percentage, it’s clear that Ben Bishop has what it takes to make the Lightning a very competitive team.

The Lightning built on their two goal lead when Martin St. Louis scored his first of two goals in the game with just under four minutes left in the middle period. After Stamkos launched (and that’s understating it) a wrist shot at Jonathan Quick, Marty jumped on the rebound and potted the puck past the Kings’ tender. Andrej Sustr was credited with the second assist, his first career point.

St. Louis’s first goal sent Quick packing after he allowed three goals on seventeen shots. As mentioned in my pre-game blog, Quick has looked very un-Quick-like to start the season. Simply put, luck just hasn’t been on his side. Ben Scrivens came into the game in relief, and didn’t fare much better.

Bishop’s shutout bid was broken by Slava Voynov midway through the third period when he sent a great shot over the lanky tender’s left shoulder and into the net. Give Voynov credit for picking his spot and beating a goalie who has proven to be hard to fool this year. Considering the fact that Bishop stands at six-foot-seven, it takes some serious guts to aim high. That was as close as the Kings would come.

Martin St. Louis scored just over two minutes after Voynov on a play that should make every highlight reel in America. With Stamkos and St. Louis heading towards the Kings net on a two-on-one rush, Stamkos dropped the puck way back to the trailer, Ryan Malone. From there, Bugsy made a great pass to St. Louis who was propped firmly at the side of Scrivens’ net. From there, number-twenty-six made no mistake. Words can’t do the play justice; it was a spectacle to behold.

The Lightning weren’t done there, as Ondrej Palat scored his second of the year with just over one minute left in the game. After a scramble in front of Scrivens, Palat found the puck in the slot and sent it home. Teddy Purcell and Tyler Johnson were credited with assists.

Tuesday's game was full of positives for the Lightning. Even though the power-play failed to generate a goal, the special teams were solid. After struggling on the penalty-kill to start the year, the Lightning killed off all five penalties they took against the Kings. They looked aggressive, calm, and poised whenever they were down a man.

In addition, it would be foolish not to mention Ryan Malone's performance. Aside from his offensive output (which was impressive), he played his role perfectly all night long. He was a force along the boards, a pest in the corners, and a key cog on the Lightning's top line. The Bugsy we saw on Tuesday is the Bugsy that deserves to play with Stamkos and St. Louis on a nightly basis.

While the advanced stats don’t necessarily paint an overly friendly picture of the Lightning’s performance on Tuesday, the eye-test didn’t do anything to make this observer believe that the Lightning were ever in trouble. From start to finish, the Bolts were in control. Now 2-1-0 on this seven game home stand and 4-2-0 overall, the Lightning have something to build on as they head into a number of games against very good opponents.

As always, thanks for reading.

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