Be sure to 'like' Hockeybuzz on Facebook!
It may have been a slow start to their game, but with six goals, the Tampa Bay Lightning ensured it would not be a slow start to their season in a home win over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night.
Back in the confines of Amalie Arena, a place of straight-up dominance over the last two seasons, with 57 wins and 118 points in their last 82 home games, the reloaded Bolts got back to work with their rivals, although many familiar faces of this rivalry, at least from the Detroit bench, weren’t there. But their replacements, especially
Thomas Vanek, wasted no time in welcoming themselves to a feud that’s taken center stage of the first round in back-to-back postseasons.
In a first period short on chances, the 32-year-old Vanek made his count, with two goals, one of which came on the power play, to give Detroit a 2-0 edge on Ben Bishop and the Lightning through the first.
The Lightning countered on the stick of
Jonathan Drouin, on a Tampa Bay power play, with a screen provided by the net-front presence of both Alex Killorn and rookie Brayden Point. It was a play that was really sparked by Bishop’s remarkable ability to push the pace the other way, as Bishop caught the Wings in the midst of a change, and forced the play into their end.
The Wings re-established their two-goal edge just 55 seconds after the Drouin goal, though, as Bishop could not seal off a
Frans Nielsen look for Nielsen’s first goal in a Detroit uniform.
But with offensive depth on their side, the Lightning brought themselves back within one before the end of the second on an unassisted goal
Cedric Paquette, and simply took over in the third.
First came a
Brian Boyle goal that equalized the teams at 3-3. Then a
Tyler Johnson power-play goal followed just 5:17 later. Killorn, with a beautiful deflection of a Drouin shot, extended the lead to two with just 3:10 to go. And even when the Wings made things interesting with a stanchion goal that straight-up baffled Bishop, a goal credited to Detroit d-man Danny DeKeyser, the Bolts remained and calm and sealed the deal with a Valtteri Filppula empty-netter.
The 6-foot-7 Bishop finished the night with 28 saves on 32 shots against.
Random thoughts and notes
- This Tampa Bay power play might just be the most lethal in the league this year. Bolstered by a full year of a matured and still-getting-better Drouin and his incredible vision in the attacking zone, and with assistant coach Todd Richards into the fold and coaching the man advantage, the Lightning power play issues from a year ago -- especially from a consistency point -- may finally be a thing of the past.
It’s worth noting that the Lightning, who scored more than two power-play goals in any game just once last season (a 3-for-8 night against Columbus), finished the win with three power-play goals.
- It’s going to be interesting to see just how many points Drouin tallies up this season.
Including the playoffs, Drouin recorded a seven goals and 16 points in 19 games upon his recall back to the Bolts. That’s a .84 point-per-game pace, or 69-point pace over the course of an 82-game season. And through one game, Drouin has tallied one goal and one assist, so maybe 164 points is a better pick. (Kidding. Kind of.) But seriously, when you talk about this Lightning power play, along with Drouin’s presence as a top-liner next to Steven Stamkos, between 60 and 70 points may be more than attainable for No. 27, if not expected. Which is absolutely bananas given where the 21-year-old Drouin and the Bolts were at this time a year ago. Or seven months ago, for that matter.
- A kind of rough start to the season for Bishop, no? In what you’d call an OK night for the Lightning franchise goaltender (for now), and on a night in which Bishop passed Darren Puppa for No. 1 on the franchise’s all-time saves leaderboard, Bishop really seemed to struggle with some of the net-front opportunities the Red Wings threw his way. Of course, some of that comes back to the defensive play (I thought Nikita Nesterov had some rough d-zone looks, same for Andrej Sustr) and perhaps some rust on Bishop’s part. But with a roster so deep, managing the play and ice time of both Bishop and backup-but-starter-in-waiting Andrei Vasilevskiy, who nearly took the Lightning back to the Stanley Cup Final last spring, will certainly be the biggest challenge of head coach Jon Cooper’s season.
The initial plan, according to Cooper, was for Vasilevskiy to start about 30 games for the Lightning this year, but if Bishop (in the final year of his contract, too) struggles out of the gate while Vasilevskiy shines in spot start duty, it will be interesting to see just how much that 30-game hope ticks up.
Up next
The Lightning continued their four-game homestand with a Saturday night head-to-head with the New Jersey Devils. The Bolts swept the season series with the Devils a year ago, and outscored them 11-to-3 over that stretch. The Devils do have a brand new shiny offensive weapon, though, in
Taylor Hall, who has four goals and eight points in seven career games against Tampa Bay.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can also be read in the New England Hockey Journal magazine. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»