The Lightning strikes for a win

Now is the winter of our discontent (not the winter of the discount tent Red Green fans), but I doubt it will be made a glorious summer for fans of the Lightning unless they can find some focus. Currently, the Lightning is in second to last place in the division (four points behind third place) and is in eleventh place in the conference.  Thankfully Friday night’s win over the Blues broke the Lightning’s six game loosing streak, but there is still a long way to go and a lot of work to be done by the team!

The Lightning out shot the Red Wings 30 to 22 on Thursday. Unfortunately not only did the Lightning not score one goal in that game, but defenseman Lukas Krajicek had a defensive-zone turnover that resulted in a  Red Wing’s goal in Thursday’s 3-0 loss at Detroit. Krajicek has since been sent down to the Lightning’s AHL affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals.

The Lightning is also missing a couple key players. Steve Downie is still out from an upper body injury that he suffered on Tuesday while playing against the Predators. Matt Walker was taken out of the game in the first period and he did not return to play.

However,  Victor Hedman returned to play after being absent for one game due to a bruised left foot. He played for 24:17 and was credited with one assist at 06:24 in the second period. Friday was Hedman’s nineteenth birthday and he hoped that the Coach Tocchet would pick him to play during the game. Ultimately the decision to play was in the hands of Hedman himself as there was no broken bones, just a question of how much pain from the bruised foot could he stand. Tocchet had this to say though about Hedman, “We need his puck-moving ability… He looked pretty good skating. He’s a tough kid.” Hopefully with the win Hedman had a happy birthday, in spite of the pain associated with his bruised foot.

The win against the Blues last night was a good a start, hopefully the team can keep this momentum going next week against the Islanders on the 21^st.  The Islanders are in tenth place in the conference and have the same number of points as the Lightning. However, they are also ranked at the bottom of their division and have one more win over all than the Lightning. Hopefully the Lightning will be able to make good use of the Islanders’ higher GA score.

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