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Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: Supporting Cast Spurs Victory |
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After embarrassing the Detroit Red Wings in their last outing, the Tampa Bay Lightning took to the ice and earned another victory against that same opponent on Friday night. This one, though, was a much more evenly played match; in fact, there’s a very real argument to be made that Detroit deserved a better result than the 3-1 defeat. Here are tonight’s thumbs:
Thumbs Up: Andrei Vasilevskiy’s Solid Play
During the first two periods especially, the Red Wings were able to generate a number of looks in the Lightning zone. Unlike in the last game, when they only took 16 shots on goal, the Red Wings fired 28 at Andrei Vasilevskiy in this one. He stopped 27 on the road to victory. While the Detroit shots skewed more towards quantity than quality, the Bolts still needed their goalie to be on his game. He delivered yet another stellar performance.
Thumbs Up: Pat Maroon’s Performance
Pat Maroon’s underlying numbers at five-on-five were predictably underwhelming, but he was a lot of fun to watch in this one. His unassisted first period goal tied the game at one, and thwarted any opportunity that the Red Wings might have had to build momentum coming out of a good period. Beyond the goal, Maroon’s real highlight tonight was a phenomenal pass to Anthony Cirelli on a two-on-one rush earlier in the game. He looked like a regular ol’ Nikita Kucherov out there.
Thumbs Up: Barclay Goodrow’s Reward
The Yanni Gourde, Blake Coleman, Barclay Goodrow line has been among the best in hockey to start this season. Despite that, Goodrow had been largely silenced on the scoresheet to this point… until tonight. He scored his first and second goals of the year, the first being a great slapshot on a zone entry and the second being an empty-net marker. It’s a just reward for a player who has been so, so good for this Lightning team since arriving last season. In addition to his tangible contributions, his underlying numbers were once again fantastic.
Bold statement: Barclay Goodrow is one of the most underrated players in the entire NHL.
Thumbs Up: Cal Foote’s Fancy Stats
He only played limited minutes, but Cal Foote’s fancy stats were out of this world. Per Natural Stat Trick, he generated a five-on-five shot attempt share of 87.50% and a five-on-five expected goal share of 92.26%. Both of those marks outpaced the rest of the Lightning skaters by a material margin.
Thumbs Up: Mikhail Sergachev’s Confidence
Even though he didn’t factor into any of the team’s scoring plays, Mikhail Sergachev looked “on” tonight, at least by my eye. When he’s playing with confidence, he’s moving his feet and engaging in the offensive zone. He was doing those things against the Red Wings, utilizing his skating ability to making opposing checkers look foolish at the blue line.
Thumbs Down: Playing the Red Wings Evenly
Everyone expected the Red Wings to show up after being embarrassed in the last outing, but it’s still a little bit disappointing to see the Lightning play them relatively evenly through most of the game. Things tilted in Tampa’s direction in the third period, but it wasn’t the kind of lopsided battle one might expect between a Stanley Cup champion and rebuilding roster.
Thumbs Down: The Power Play
The Lightning power play went 0/3 on Friday, again failing to gain much traction. Sitting right around the middle of the pack league wide, Tampa’s man-advantage unit seems to be missing Kucherov.
Thumbs Up: The Reverse Retro Jerseys
Tampa’s reverse retro jerseys are – at least from my perspective – among the best in the league. There’s no reason that those shouldn’t be the primary jerseys. They’re beautiful.
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With a local Super Bowl taking place on Sunday, the Lightning will have a chance to rest up for a couple days before returning to action on Monday against the Nashville Predators.
As always, thanks for reading.
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • 
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