Lightning leaning on stars for late-season resurgence
After winning the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021, losing in the final to the Colorado Avalanche in 2022 and taking a first-round elimination last season, the Tampa Bay Lightning seemed destined to be watching the postseason from home this season just a month ago.
After finishing February 5-6-1, the Lightning didn't look anything like a playoff team.
But following a March in which Tampa Bay went 9-1-1, the star-powered team has sewn up the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 95 points (44-27-7) with four games remaining in the regular season. If the postseason began today, the Lightning would play the Boston Bruins.
The team's red-hot March was led by winger Nikita Kucherov, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, center Brayden Point, veteran captain Steven Stamkos and former Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Victor Hedman.
Kucherov leads the league in scoring with a career-high 139 points (43 goals and 96 assists) and is a leading candidate for the Hart Trophy as league MVP. He has 53 points more than Tampa Bay's next-highest point producer, Point, who has put in 86 points (44 goals and 42 assists).
Even Kucherov put it in a higher gear in March, logging 26 points in 13 games.
"He's the smartest player in hockey," Hedman said of the Russian, per ESPN.com.
Then there's Vasilevskiy, who did not start the season until late November because of offseason hip surgery and has taken awhile to round into form.
He's there, now.
The 2019 Vezina Trophy winner is 9-2-1 with a .918 save percentage and 2.33 goals-against average since the beginning of March.
By the end of last month, Point had 12 points in 12 games, Stamkos 17 points in 13 games and Hedman 12 points in 12 games.
One of the old adages when it comes to winning in the playoffs in hockey has always been: "Your best players have to be your best players."
And Tampa Bay's best players are all on a roll with the playoffs set to start April 20.
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