Captain Vinny to the Rescue!

Last night, the Tampa Bay Lightning faced-off against a Phoenix team with a much depleted blue line (out were Ed Jovanovski, Kurt Sauer, and Zbynek Michalek), yet the Bolts seemed to dry up offensively, mustering only 19 shots on goal.  However, thanks to a big night from Vincent Lecavalier, some stellar saves by Mike Smith, and also an off night for Phoenix goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, the Lightning came out with a 4-1 win in Phoenix.

Bolts Notes:

-The NHL.com headline after the game was appropriately titled, “Flash of Vinny”, as the Lightning saw a glimpse of Lecavalier as the player he was just a couple seasons ago when he had the ability to dominate a game.  I also found it interesting to note that the three goals scored by Lecavalier (2) and St. Louis (1), were not pretty goals, but were scored by driving to the net and putting pucks on the net.  A while back, Tocchet and Lecavalier spoke about the need to simplify his game. I think Vinny definitely did that last night and the results speak for themselves.

-This game snaps long scoring droughts for both Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier.  They now both have 4 goals in 18 games.

-Although Lecavalier had 3 points on the night (2G, 1A) and was +3, the real first star of the game was goaltender Mike Smith.  He stopped 30 of 31 shots and made some huge saves when his team needed him most.  I think Smith definitely needed this win in a big way to gain some confidence and get back on track to playing well on a consistent basis.  As many people have said before, having two goaltenders playing very well is a wonderful problem for a team to have.

-The other Lightning goal was netted by Alex Tanguay, who has really started to get things going.  After a very slow start, he has now amassed a total of 12 points in 18 games and is +5.

-Lightning Defender, Mattias Ohlund, missed last night’s game with an apparent lower-body injury sustained against the Kings on Saturday.  There has been no update on his current status.