The Tampa Bay Lightning Have ‘Well Deserved’ Breaks In Their Schedule

Winning two Stanley Cups in nine months and beginning an 82-game schedule only three months after the second championship was won can be rather taxing.

That is why a six-game February will provide some welcome rest for the Tampa Bay Lightning, especially for the players who have been with the team the past two years and commenced the championship run in the 2020 playoff bubbles.

“Sometimes it’s nice to get a little time off,” said coach Jon Cooper, whose team is in second and three points behind Florida in the Atlantic Division, and has a .717 points percentage that is fourth in the Eastern Conference. “We have played a lot of hockey and these guys deserve it. Even with the Christmas break, we were the last one to play (December 21 at Vegas) and first one to start (after the break on December 28 versus Montreal). So these guys have barely had any time off.”

A 3-2 overtime win against visiting San Jose on Tuesday night was the Lightning’s last home game until February 23 against Edmonton. In between, the Lightning will make up three games that were postponed due to the virus: at Colorado on the 10th, at Arizona on the 11th and at New Jersey on the 15th. They conclude the month with an outdoor game against the Predators in Nashville on the 26th.

The quirky schedule, which has eight- and 10-day gaps between games, is a byproduct of this weekend’s all-star break and what was going to be a two-week window for the Winter Olympics. With NHL players not participating in Beijing, that time is being used to make up games that were postponed due to the virus.

Nobody in the Lightning’s locker room is complaining about the down time. Rather, the team will gladly soak in the off days.

“It is a well-deserved and well-earned break for us, kind of broken up into two,” said Victor Hedman, whose goal won Tuesday night’s game and who is tied with the Rangers’ Adam Fox for most points (47) among NHL defenemen. “Guys that are out (injured), this will give them a chance to inch closer to coming back. There are only five games left in the month, so that is good news for our team.”

Tampa Bay has had its fair share of injuries this season, including defensemen Erik Cernak and Zach Bogosian, both of whom have missed several recent games. Nikita Kucherov, who missed 32 games before returning last month, was not cleared to play against San Jose after having missed the previous two games due to Covid protocols.

“It is pretty nice to have a break to rest up and get some of our guys back and healthy.” said Anthony Cirelli. “I think that is huge for us.”

The Lightning, who are 16-4-4 at home, will send Hedman, Steven Stamkos and Andrei Vasilevskiy to this weekend’s all-star festivities in Vegas. Stamkos leads the Lightning with 20 goals and 52 points, a total that is tied for 10th in the league. Vasilevskiy has been his usual all-world self in putting together a season that includes a 2.23 goals against and a .922 save percentage.

While there are some gaudy numbers noted above, many of Tampa Bay’s wins this season have been far from pretty. That’s fine, as grind-it-out and patient games have proven to be effective, especially since the Lightning have not been able to get everybody healthy and on the ice at the same time.

The San Jose game underscored how effective Cooper’s team can be when it pays attention to the details instead of, for instance, looking for the odd-man break. The Lightning’s two Cup wins have, first and foremost, largely been a byproduct of responsible play.

“It is nice to go into the break with a win and playing a tight checking game where we were not turning pucks over, we protected the middle of the ice and did the little things right,” said Cirelli, who has 13 goals and is a plus-13, tied for second on the team behind Hedman’s plus-15. “It is always nice to get the two ponts, but it was a good effort from the standpoint of playing well defensively in a tight game. We can enjoy these days off and I think a lot of guys are excited to get a break here.”