Lightning Clawing Their Way Into Playoff Contention

As the Tampa Bay Lightning hit the road for Buffalo, they could do so confidently, knowing that they took care of business at home. After being humbled in Boston on Jan. 6, the Lightning buckled down and won all four games of their home stand to put themselves back in the playoff race. There were some close calls, but the team showed that they still have a winning mentality and the ability to bend but not break when in high-pressure scenarios. How did they get it done, and what is next for the Lightning?

Perbix and Raddysh Got it Done in Overtime

With three minutes remaining in overtime against the Los Angeles Kings, Brandon Hagel passed the puck to Nick Perbix. The defenseman had one man to beat, and he did just that. He got the inside position, put a nice backhanded shot on the net, and ended the game.

Just two nights later, the Lightning found themselves in another overtime situation, this time against the New Jersey Devils. Darren Raddysh anticipated a pass from Nikita Kucherov and slipped away from the defense. Kucherov, as he so often does, put the puck exactly where it needed to be. Raddysh proceeded to call the game by putting an absolute rocket in the back of the net.

The Lightning have had their fair share of trouble with overtime contests so far. In fact, they lost five out of the six games that were decided in overtime this season. Recently, there has been a bit of a shift, and heading into this last home stand, the Lightning had won their previous two overtime games. They were clearly able to hold onto the lessons learned from those wins, as the first two games in the home stand went to overtime, and the Lightning were able to win both of them. That in and of itself is promising, as it does show the team is playing with a winning mentality and is still able to grind out close wins. What makes it better is that the game-winning goals came from those two unlikely sources.

Vasilevskiy Found Some Consistency

It is no secret that Andrei Vasilevskiy has not been himself since getting back into the fold. In mid-December, he had a stretch where he gave up four goals on three separate occasions in the span of just four starts. A month later, while there have not been any incidents quite that extreme, his form has still looked off. All of this is understandable, given the circumstances of his coming back from surgery, but that does not make it any easier for a team that is on the bubble for a…