The Tampa Bay Lightning Can't be Stopped at Home

Tampa got off to another hot start, scoring 2 first period goals. One from captain Victor Hedman on the power play and another from Ilya Mikheyev (the former Blackhawk got 2). After that, the Blackhawks never really had a chance.

Tampa dominated the shots department in the second period, putting up 16 and got the energy on their side when Jeffrey Viel dominated Dillon Boucher in Boucher's first career NHL fight.

Tampa's success came from their strong movement patterns and constant pressure throughout the night, but also their ability to win in the face off circle. The Lightning committed numerous icing fouls that could have hurt them on any other night, but Tampa won the face off time and time again, winning more than 60% of the time on the night.

The biggest development of the past few weeks beyond the Nikita Kucherov trade request has been the resurgence of Brayden Point who has now recorded a point in six straight games. Point is one of the top centers in this league when healthy and played a crucial role on Tampa's Championship rosters, his bounce back was one of my X-Factors for this season, and he appears to be back.

Tampa couldn't have defeated the Blackhawks without the effort of Andrei Vasilevskiy as Chicago managed to get a lot of solid looks off at the net, but Vasilevksiy kept a clean sheet, until Chicago scored a redirected goal with under one minute to go.

Tampa will have to play a cleaner game this Saturday to take care of the Wild, and Jon Cooper will make sure of that. But nonetheless, this performance, on home ice, just reassures the league that it is hard to come play down in Tampa, just as it has been for the last decade.

Tampa moves to 10-3-2.

Tampa's upcoming matchups will provide them with an opportunity to prove that they can win on the road, something they have yet to prove. But it is a test that they need early on in the season, because if they can even play .500 hockey on the road, they will find themselves sitting pretty in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Lightning will begin a 4-game road trip starting this Saturday against the Minnesota Wild.