It took a shootout in St. Louis on Friday evening to snap Tampa Bay’s 11-game win streak, which equaled the longest in franchise history. The loss also halted an impressive seven-game road win streak. The Lightning still picked up a point and carry a 12-game point streak into Dallas on Sunday afternoon.
Playing on the road has been anything but grueling for Jon Cooper’s team, which is 17-4-4 away from Tampa and has not lost in regulation since a 2-0 setback at Toronto on December 8. Overall, the Lightning head into their matinee against the Stars 29-13-4, good for 62 points and first place in an Atlantic Division race in which the top five teams were separated by all of six points entering play Saturday.
“You have to get points just to stay in the mix,” said Cooper, who in the space of two weeks coached his 1,000th game and won for the 600th time, following the match in St. Louis. “We put ourselves in a pretty darn good spot and this is a full month of road games for us. The fact we keep getting points will bode well for us later in the season.”
To Cooper’s point about being on the road this month, the Bolts rang in 2026 with consecutive afternoon victories on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day at Anaheim and at Los Angeles, respectively. The SoCal trip was the front end of a stretch in which the Lightning, through the matchup in Dallas, will have played eight of nine games on the road and in all four time zones. By the time they leave Columbus next Saturday, the tally will be 10 of 12 before concluding January with a pair of home dates.
Overcoming key injuries
The Lightning are truly doing whatever it takes to get the job done and continue to thrive without defensemen Victor Hedman (elbow), who has missed the last 15 games and 27 of 30, and Ryan McDonagh (lower body), who has sat out the last nine games and also 27 of 30. Emil Lilleberg (undisclosed) has been absent for the last 13 matches and Erik Cernak returned for the aforementioned game against the Ducks after sitting out 19 of 20 due to a hand injury.
Joining a busy infirmary is Braydon Point, who earlier this season was scratched due to injury for seven games, and is considered “week to week” in the words of Cooper after falling awkwardly in Philadelphia and sustaining what appeared to be knee injury.
The Lightning have not only persevered through an expanded injury report, but have played an exceptional brand of hockey while receiving contributions from all 19 players in the lineup any given evening. That includes those who have been summoned from their AHL affiliate in Syracuse, something that has kept the transaction wire busy in Tampa this season. That is especially the case with those on the blue line.
“It’s not like you can come in a get your feet wet,” said Brandon Hagel, following the second of two straight wins in Philly. “You’re put right into the fire. All of them have been doing a good job. They have some good chemistry back (on defense) and for a win streak to happen, everybody has to be doing their job.”
Stars are not the only ones starring
Nikita Kucherov enters the matchup in Dallas 11-13-24 in his last 12 games with 10 multi-point performances. Hagel is having another strong season (42 points in 41 games) and PK artist, Anthony Cirelli, has a dozen goals and is a plus-26, which is tops among Bolts forwards.
The level of production from the defense in the absence of Hedman and company is no less than impressive. Leading the way is Darren Raddysh, who has a career high 41 points (40 games) and has six multi-point efforts in the last eight games. He is also tied with Kucherov and Oliver Bjorkstrand for the team lead in power play goals with six. (For Bjorkstrand, six of his seven goals have come on the man advantage.)
J.J. Moser has chipped in with five goals and 15 points while possessing an eye-opening plus-36 rating that leads NHL defensemen and is third overall. In fact, through Friday’s games, Moser was the sole non-Avalanche player in the top seven. The 25-year-old is plus-56 in 98 games in his two seasons with the Lightning and recently signed an extension.
Of course, there is Andrei Vasilevskiy in goal. Vasy won his 350th game at Pittsburgh, which stretched his win streak to eight before the St. Louis loss. Jonas Johansson has been impressive when called upon as well.
The bottom line is the Bolts have been winning in whatever fashion is required. They can turn on the jets and win big, or they can succeed in hard fought contests that can test the patience level.
“Very valuable,” said Moser, when asked about the team’s ability to come out on top regardless of how a game flowed, or did not flow. “It means that we are doing a lot of the right things. It gives you a lot of confidence that you are ready for whatever kind of game you are facing.”
