No late comeback efforts were necessary for the Tampa Bay Lightning in its home opener on Thursday night, where the team cruised to a 7-2 victory over the Florida Panthers.
After going 2-1 on a season-opening road trip that saw the team go up against last season’s Stanley Cup finalists, Tampa Bay returned home to begin a seven-game home stand.
And the home team certainly did not disappoint.
Marty St. Louis, long-time Lightning veteran and now its newest captain, scored the first goal at home this season. Steven Stamkos had his sixth career hat trick, scoring a goal in each period including the game winner. Ben Bishop got his third win of the season and is undefeated in goal.
It was a far cry from Tampa Bay’s previous two games, where overtime was required to come away with a win.
“They were rolling. They kept putting themselves in position to score without sacrificing the other end,” head coach Jon Cooper said after the game, “They’re really talented players, and it’s been a lot of fun to watch them. To watch it all pay off now is great. It’s just the fourth game of the year, we’ve got such a long way to go, but it’s great to have this success.”
Perhaps the player on the biggest roll during the home opener was Stamkos. In addition to his hat trick, his first since 2011’s New Year’s Eve game against Carolina, the first-line center had an assist and four hits.
After going without a goal in his first three games, the spotlight was certainly on Stamkos as he entered this game. As last season’s second-highest goal scorer, a quiet start was not one that many expected. However, Stamkos said that he knew it was only a matter of time before he began to put pucks in the net, and did not stress himself over when it might happen.
“To be completely honest, this might have been the first time that I didn’t,” Stamkos said. “I kind of had an eerie feeling that tonight was going to be a good night. I just had a good feeling and when you play the game the right way, you get rewarded.”
Center Valtteri Filppula had two goals on three shots in his first home appearance as a member of the Lightning. His goals came less than three minutes apart, at the 6:38 and 9:14 marks of the third period, a feat that helped him earn second-star honors. Filppula also tallied 20:52 minutes of ice time, good for third-most on the team behind Marty St. Louis (21:28) and Matt Carle (21:16).
Filppula’s immediate success with his new team may come as a surprise to some, but Stamkos noted that the veteran center’s play has always been of a high caliber. Stamkos said that the magnitude of Filppula’s talent may simply have been underestimated while playing with top athletes like Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk in Detroit.
However, now that he’s assumed the role of a second-line center with the Lightning, Filppula’s skill has been a prominent feature of Tampa Bay’s offense.
“I guess I have to give him some money afterwards for saying that,” Filppula said with a laugh after being told of Stamkos’ comments. “But you just need to look at the score sheet to see what we all had a really good game. My whole line played really well; we had a lot of chances and scored a lot of goals.”
In addition the impressive offensive production seen against the Panthers, the Lightning’s defense also had its most impressive outing this season. The unit held Florida to just 21 shots on net, forced 13 takeaways, had 27 hits, and set up a shorthanded goal. Combined with goaltender Ben Bishop’s .905 save percentage, Tampa Bay played its most complete game of the season.
Now second in the Atlantic Division and third in the Eastern Conference with six points, it is clear that Cooper will stick with his current game plan as the team prepares to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.
The Penguins will prove to be a formidable foe, as they are undefeated on the season and have won each of their three games by three goals. Tampa Bay will look to improve on last season’s series against Pittsburgh, where the Lightning lost in each of the three meetings.
