Welcome to this edition of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Stock Up and Stock Down, a weekly column detailing the highs and lows of the team’s performance.
The Tampa Bay Lightning did not let the tryptophan from their turkey dinner slow them down, as they defeated the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Friday night (Nov. 26). The win evened their mark for the week after suffering a 5-3 loss at the hands of the league-leading Boston Bruins on Monday (Nov. 21). They are 7-3-1 during their last 11 games, nine of which were played at home.
The loss to the Bruins was not too surprising, even if it was a home game. They were 16-2 coming into the contest and have easily been the best team in the NHL to that point in the season. The Lightning could argue that they outplayed the Bruins in the first and third periods, but the second period did them in. Pat Maroon said after the game, “I thought we had the momentum, and then we tried just to change our game for some reason and turned pucks over. Then we took some penalties again. That kills our momentum.”
Stock Up: Sticking Up for Teammates
Friday night’s victory over the Blues was an excellent example of players sticking up for their teammates. At 5:30 of the first period, the Blues’ Robert Bortuzzo collided with Vasilevskiy after skating in from the right-wing boards and getting a slight shove from Mikhail Sergachev. At least four of the Lightning on the ice dropped the gloves to let Bortuzzo know how displeased they were with the contact on their star goaltender. That came after the Lightning showed their displeasure with Rudolfs Balcers being run into the glass at the other end of the ice, knocking him out of the game.
Stock Up: A Bogosian Thanksgiving
There is no scientific proof that Zach Bogosian hosting teammates over Thanksgiving had any impact on a fast first-period start against the Blues. One big difference between what happened against the Blues and in the loss to the Bruins was that the Lightning were able to hold on to the lead against the Blues. The impact of bringing teammates together for a holiday may be most important about the Bogosian Thanksgiving gathering, which will likely have long-term effects on the locker room. While many take them for granted, it should be noted that he is only one of seven Americans on the team. Since many players didn’t traditionally celebrate Thanksgiving growing up, this gathering became a great opportunity for…
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