The Tampa Bay Lightning are showing the Florida Panthers what it means to play in the playoffs. After winning a thrilling opening game to start the series, the Bolts held on tonight for a 3-1 victory over their interstate foes. That makes two wins in two road games to open this 2021 postseason, which puts Tampa Bay in prime position heading back to Amalie Arena on Thursday. Here are tonight’s thumbs:

Thumbs Up: Lessons Learned
It’s no secret that defence was very much optional in Game 1 between the Lightning and Panthers; it was imperative that the Bolts cleaned things up in this second tilt. As much as they were dominated in almost every one of the underlying number categories tonight, I thought the Lightning did exactly that.

Florida was very much in a state of quantity over quality, as the Tampa defenders did a wonderful job of keeping them largely to the perimeter. Florida is a really good team – so it’s no surprise that they were able to control play like they did – but the Lightning knew how to respond accordingly and simply hang on for dear life. It’s not a strategy that will work every time, but it’s a strategy that can help a team to steal a win. That the Bolts were able to steal that win on the road for a second straight ‘W’ is huge.

Thumbs Up: Andrei Vasilevskiy Settles In
Of course, any time your team gives up more than 30 shots and only allows one goal, the goaltender deserves credit. That’s true no matter how good the team defence in front of him might have been. Vasilevskiy was excellent for Tampa tonight, showing that he’s absolutely capable of once again being the guy who led them to the promised land last year.

Thumbs Up: The Sergachev-Savard Pairing
Last time out, the Mikhail Sergachev-David Savard pairing was – in a word – brutal. Tonight was a completely different story. If you need an example of a pairing living and breathing that “team defence” mantra referenced above, these two guys were it. According to Natural Stat Trick, when they were out on the ice together at five-on-five, the Lightning generated 94% (!) of the expected goal share. Florida had nothing.

Thumbs Up: Ryan McDonagh’s Monster Night
Ryan McDonagh’s underlying numbers weren’t nearly as impressive as those referenced for Sergachev and Savard, but the eye test was very friendly to him in this game on a number of fronts. He’ll be persona non grata at BB&T Center the next time the Lightning waltz in there, as his physicality and sly dirtiness have made him public enemy number one for the Panthers and their fans. Beyond that, tonight he was big in the shot block department – a major cog in the team defence machine.

Thumbs Up: Welcome Back, Stammer and Kuch
How great is it to see those two playing again? And, what a difference it’s made for Tampa Bay through two games. They’ve combined for seven points since the start of this series. That’s nearly one point for each million dollars the Lightning saved against the cap by having Kucherov sit on LTIR, if you can believe it.

Thumbs Down: Rookie Enthusiasm
If the Panthers are going to play themselves back into this series, they are going to need to settle down in a fairly significant way. They look way too excited to have just been invited to the dance, and it’s hurting their efforts. They’re taking needless runs at Lightning players, which pushes their skaters out of position; they’re putting themselves in spots where it’s easy for referees to make borderline calls. If they can learn to act like they've been here before, I imagine they'll have some success. Heading out on the road could be good for them.

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The Lightning and Panthers will play Game 3 on Thursday at Amalie Arena.

As always, thanks for reading.

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