The Tampa Bay Lightning snapped a four-game losing streak on Saturday, defeating the Anaheim Ducks, 4-3. Superstar winger Nikita Kucherov collected two assists and reached the 1,000 career points milestone in the process. He’s the 101st player in league history to reach that mark. Among Tampa players, only Steven Stamkos previously attained 1,000 points with the team.
From an historical perspective, Kucherov’s milestone moment dominated the attention. However, Anthony Cirelli was the biggest standout of the game with two goals and an assist. Likewise, Jake Guentzel notched two tallies. scored Additionally, veteran defenseman Victor Hedman and forward Brandon Hagel each notched two assists. Meanwhile, Jonas Johansson made 37 saves to earn the win in goal.
The Lightning improved to 2-4-2 on the season. Saturday marked their first home win of the season after going 0-3-0 to start the 2025-26 campaign.
Lightning really needed this one
Does Saturday’s outcome mark a much-needed reversal of fortune for Tampa? That remains to be seen. However, it washes away (at least temporarily) the sting of Thursday’s game and halts the losing streak.
On Thursday, the Lightning collected a loss against former assistant coach Jeff Blashill and the Chicago Blackhawks. The Bolts lost 3-2 on a last minute goal that broke the tie game.
It took seven minutes into the second for the Lightning to finally beat Spencer Knight. Kucherov broke into the zone with Guentzel on a quick two on one that almost saw Kucherov get his first goal since their season opener. Off of Kucherov’s near miss, he would send the puck back up through the slot and eventually find Ryan McDonagh, who fires it on goal and Guentzel would get his stick on it to beat a scrambling Spencer Knight.
Both the Blackhawks and Lightning would add a second goal to their scoresheet, and the game went to the third period tied. The Lightning managed an even better shot differential in the second, outshooting the Blackhawks 11-6, but were having difficulty solving the strong play of Spencer Knight.
The third period played out much the same, both teams trading chances, and both goalies standing strong. That is until the last minute of the game, when Tuevo Teravainen would strip Nikita Kucherov of the puck in the Blackhawks zone, and send a forward pass up the ice to a speeding Frank Nazar. Breaking into the zone, Nazar fired a hard shot on Vasilevskiy who made the initial stop, but a wide rebound landed right on Ryan Donato’s tape, gifting him his second goal of the game on an open net with only 00:54 left in the game.
Big picture issues remain
Saturday’s win provided some much-needed good news for Tampa Bay. However, the reprieve will be temporary if the club does not consistently address the issues that led to the club’s 1-4-2 start heading into the Anaheim game.
- Too many penalties
- Sluggish power play execution
- Insufficient shot volume and quality
- A resulting overall lack of scoring
Saturday’s win was an important step in the right direction, both offensively and in the outcome. Nevertheless, one game alone is not a turnaround. Now the Bolts need to build on the positives to stay on the winning track. There’s still a lot of work to do to put the slow start in the rear-view mirror.
