The Tampa Bay Lightning capped a three-game homestand tonight with a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders, which pushes them into third place in the Atlantic Division with at least one game in hand on each of the teams they are chasing. While the result looks convincing, the journey to get there was a lot closer and filled with many extra curriculars. Here are tonight’s thumbs:

Thumbs Up: Stitching Together Some Symbolism
After a relatively slow start to the season, the Lightning seem to be righting the ship. On this three-game homestand, they put together a 2-0-1 record. While that sample size is small, the list of opponents is full of giants. The Lightning beat both the Florida Panthers and Islanders, and got the Hurricanes to overtime. Those three teams happen to represent the ones that Tampa Bay beat to reach last year’s Stanley Cup Final, which they ultimately won.

Thumbs Up: Anthony Cirelli’s Monster Night
Cirelli scored what ultimately became the game winner, but that wasn’t even close to his entire impact on this game. With 17 penalty minutes attached to his name, Cirelli likely earned a lot of praise in the locker room for sticking up for a teammate and causing some havoc after Alex Killorn got crunched in the offensive zone. When you take a goal, a fight, and add a puck to the face, you get yourself an Anthony Cirelli hat trick.

Thumbs Up: Katchouk Stands Up for Himself
After taking a crosscheck up high from Zdeno Chara late in the third period, Boris Katchouk fired back. It takes a lot of guts for a rookie to stand up to one of the biggest names to play the game, both literally and figuratively. Good for him.

Thumbs Up: The Captain Converts
Steven Stamkos? From the circle? On the power play? Stop me if you’ve seen that movie before. It paid off again in this game for the 4-1 goal. That makes eight goals for Stamkos on the season, which is better than a half-goal-per-game pace.

Thumbs Down: Corey Perry’s Luck
I thought Corey Perry was actually quite good again for Tampa Bay, despite generating more zeroes on the score sheet. He was engaged physically, he was a pest, and he played his role perfectly. This was one of those games where you enjoy having Perry on your team, but hate to have him on the opposing side. Thankfully for the Lightning, they’re beneficiaries of his antics now.

Even as he continues to do so much right, Perry still can’t catch a break when it comes to putting the puck in the net. Once one of the league’s most prolific scorers, Perry is on a crazy scoreless streak by his standards. He deserves a lot better than his numbers (or lack thereof) would suggest. How much better does he deserve? Better than every single other player in the league:

Goals Scored Above Expected Leaders - November 13 pic.twitter.com/f6AaQNSgyT

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) November 13, 2021

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As always, thanks for reading.

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