Were Back, Let’s Overreact: Biggest Takeaways From The Lightning’s First Game
Ladies and gentlemen, hockey is back!
This past Friday night the Tampa Bay Lightning kicked off their 2024-2025 season by traveling to Raleigh, North Carolina and earning a 4-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. After going down 1-0 in the first period, the Bolts would score four straight goals to earn the decisive win.
This past offseason for the Bolts was one of the craziest in recent memory. Huge new acquisitions and the departures of several key players. The team who took the ice tonight looked different compared to the teams the Lightning had in the past few years. With all of this change, you could make an argument that this was one of the most anticipated opening games in some time for Bolts fans. Many weren’t sure what to expect out of this new team. Well now that the final horn has gone off and the first game is finally in the books, we can now start to judge this year’s Lightning team.
Obviously, this is the first game of the season. One game isn’t going to completely show who a team is going to be for an entire season. So, is this overreacting? Well maybe, but hey what sports fan doesn’t overreact?
So, with all of that being said, here are the biggest takeaways from the Lightning’s first game of the season.
A Bit Weird To Watch
The first thing to note is that if you were a Bolts fans, what you saw had to feel a bit strange. As previously mentioned, this team looks very different compared to past ones due to old players leaving and new ones joining the team. There were guys we had never seen before skating around in a Bolts jersey. Guys like Jake Guentzel and rookie Conor Geekie.
At the same time, guys who have been a huge part of this team for years were missing. Guys like Mikhail Sergachev and of course Steven Stamkos.
And speaking of Stamkos, this game marks the first time in 10 years that Bolts fans have seen a player not wearing number 91 wearing the C. The man captaining the Bolts is now Victor Hedman. Hedman’s been on the team for a long time, but it must have felt weird for a lot of fans to see him now wearing the C. As mentioned in a previous RBLR article, Hedman has earned the right to be team captain. But at the same time, after years of seeing Stamkos have the C on his jersey, it still doesn’t completely feel right to see another guy wearing it.
Kuch Is Still Kuch
This team may have gone through a lot of changes, but it looks like some things have stayed the same.
Nikita Kucherov is a man who needs no introduction. A multiple-time All-Star, a former Hart Trophy winner and a two-time and the reining Art Ross Trophy winner, Kucherov is one of the best players in the NHL. In an age of high-scoring Lightning teams, Kucherov has been the leader. In other words, he’s the kind of player who if he plays well, the whole team does. And Kucherov’s performance in this game makes it look like he’s going to continue to be the team’s offensive quarterback.
Kucherov actually made a bit of history tonight. His four points bring his career total to 877, which allowed him to past Lightning legend Vincent Lecavalier for the third most points in team history.
He was the best player in the game, no questions about it. Kucherov recorded a natural hat trick and one assist. He had six shots on goals and seemed to be everywhere on the ice. He was making good passes and was an overall problem for the Hurricanes.
Funnily enough, the man who had the most points in the league last year looks like he could potentially try and do it again. His four points are tied for the most in the league after all!
The Other Big Guns Step Up
Kucherov may be the team’s best player, but he’s not the only star on the Lightning. And tonight, those stars played great games. The new man wearing the C Victor Hedman recorded three assists. Multiple-time All-Star Jake Guentzel started his Lightning career with a bang by recording two assists. Brayden Point showed he’s a goal scorer with an incredible power-play goal.
And then of course there was the guy in-between the pipes, which leads to….
The Big Cat Is Back
If Kucherov isn’t the best and most important player on the Lightning, then it’s this guy.
Andrei Vasilevskiy faced 21 shots and made 20 saves, earning a .952 save percentage. He also made a few jaw-dropping saves, robbing what looked like a possible Hurricanes goal.
Vasilevskiy has been one of, if not the best, goalies in the league. And tonight, he made it look like he’s looking to keep that reputation.
Dangerous Power Play
One of the major reasons for the Lightning’s success in past seasons was their ability to score on the powerplay. They always had one of the top-scoring power-play units. Last year their powerplay was the best in the league.
Stamkos was a huge part of the Bolts’ power play, so it would be fair to question if they would be able to have the same success without him. But it looks like, in this game at least, that the powerplay is still one of the team’s strengths.
The team had six power plays and scored on two of them. Those two powerplay goals were the most important of the game, as they were the game-tying and game-winning goals. In other words, the Lightning took advantage of major opportunities when they were given to them.
Also as a side note while we are talking about special teams play, props need to be given to the Bolts’ penalty kill as they were successfully able to kill four Hurricane power plays.
Bringing the City Joy
This last part is going to be less of an analysis and more of a Bolts fan saying thank you to the team he loves to watch.
You don’t need me to tell you this, but it’s been a sad and tough time for Tampa, along with a lot of Florida. Hurricane Helene and now Milton have done some serious damage to the community.
First of all, on behalf of myself and the entire RBLR Sports family, I would like to send our thoughts and prayers to everyone affected by the hurricane. We love you guys, and we hope everyone is safe. We will get through this together. We will come out of this horrible time stronger than ever. And while we rebuild, we’re going to continue to cover and discuss not just the Lightning, but all of Tampa’s sports teams and we just hope that all of the silly content we make can help bring you guys a little joy.
Last night the Bolts were the ones who brought the joy. For myself and I’m sure many other fans who were able to watch the game, seeing this team take the ice again, seeing guys like Kucherov and Point dazzle with the puck, seeing Vasilevskiy be a brick wall, it made me smile. It made me forget about what was going on in the world. And right now, I needed something like that. All of Tampa needed something like that. So my biggest takeaway from this game isn’t the team’s offensive performance or how certain players looked. It simply that Lightning hockey is back. Because at the end of the day, with all that’s going on, that’s the most important thing!
