Michael Stuart: Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: Hedman Plays Overtime Hero vs. Blue Jackets

Savard seems to be fitting in better and even Schenn passed the eye test last night.

I think a lot of the Lightning's struggles has been the absence of two elite forwards.

Every opposing team had the "pick your poison" option of the Stamkos line or the Kucherov line. Coaches put their defensive forwards against those two weapons, leaving bottom-six guys to cover the likes of Cirelli, Killorn, Johnson, and the rest. The Lightning's bottom-six is better than most, so it tipped the scales in their favor.

Now, teams are matching their best lines and defensive pairings against our depleted top-six. Our top-six is not nearly as impressive without Kuch and Stamkos drawing all the attention.

It's all fallen on Hedman, Point, and Vasi to carry the team. Hedman has not had a decent partner all season, so it makes his performance all the more impressive, even when he looks "off" - which, BTW, he might be a little banged up. He's absorbed some solid hits in the last several games.

It must feel good to be a Lightning fan, Even without Stamkos and Kucherov TB Is still head and shoulders above most NHL teams. I saw the game Sunday against Columbus and I never thought for a second that TB would lose. The only bad news I see for the Lightning Is that sooner rather than later the salary cap rules will break up this group, Great piece that NBCSNLSD did last night on Patrick Maroon.

Need to play complete games but they know that.

Victor Hedman is trying to make up for the absence of Stammer and Kuch and be aggressively offensively and its affected his play in his own end a little but he is still the best D. As galactic said maybe he is a little banged up as well.

They need to stop the silly blue line and drop passes as teams are looking for it and getting plenty of odd man rushes off it at least 3 or more a game it seems.

Lastly when they enter the O zone they are staying to the outside and curling back. They need to attack middle of ice and net with more regularity as teams are playing for their current entry design.

Just a random observation : it seems like the Lightning have gotten away with some gooning lately. I've seen a few hits in recent games that would have merited a whistle. Last night Sergachev creamed a guy into the boards right in front of a linesman. No call. Sure, it wasn't blatant, but he's lucky he didn't get whistled for it. I also saw Cernak throw an elbow on somebody and get away with it. There's a been a lot of that and it's good to see some sandpaper after years of being perceived as skilled but soft. But, they better keep that poop in check once the playoffs arrive.

Just a random observation : it seems like the Lightning have gotten away with some gooning lately. I've seen a few hits in recent games that would have merited a whistle. Last night Sergachev creamed a guy into the boards right in front of a linesman. No call. Sure, it wasn't blatant, but he's lucky he didn't get whistled for it. I also saw Cernak throw an elbow on somebody and get away with it. There's a been a lot of that and it's good to see some sandpaper after years of being perceived as skilled but soft. But, they better keep that poop in check once the playoffs arrive.
- GalacticStone

Trust me, we noticed. There was also another time earlier in the period where someone (think it might have been Cernak?) literally laid on one of our players for like 8 seconds in front of a ref, and nothing either.

Trust me, we noticed. There was also another time earlier in the period where someone (think it might have been Cernak?) literally laid on one of our players for like 8 seconds in front of a ref, and nothing either.
- General Mokus

Cernak likes to go head-hunting on occasion. I wish he wouldn't do that.