By Eduardo A. Encina
Tampa Bay Times
TAMPA — The Lightning were a considerably different team Saturday from the one that suffered its worst loss of the season two nights earlier.
Their two trade-deadline acquisitions — forward Anthony Duclair and defenseman Matt Dumba — made their Lightning debuts against the Philadelphia Flyers.
There was extra buzz inside Amalie Arena as the 2004 team, which first brought the Stanley Cup to Tampa Bay, was honored in a pregame ceremony.
And making their first appearance since Thursday’s embarrassing three-goal loss to the Flames, the Lightning knew they had something to prove.
They finally looked like the dominant team of a few years back, taking control quickly and not letting their opponent back into the game.
They deflated the Flyers with a four-goal first period and rolled to a 7-0 win, their largest margin of victory this season.
With the win, Tampa Bay (34-25-6, 74 points) moved into the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Ten different players had points, and Darren Raddysh’s five assists set a franchise record for defensemen. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 25 shots he saw to record his second shutout of the season.
What a start
The Lightning typically have have been dominant at home, but they entered the game having lost five of their last six games (1-4-1) at Amalie, a skid that has to stop if they want to get into the playoffs.
The common thread was falling behind early and having to chase games. Tampa Bay allowed the first goal in four of the six contests and faced early multiple-goal deficits in five.
On Saturday, Victor Hedman took care of that problem in the first two minutes. His goal 1:49 into the game was his 11th of the season and first of two in the game. Conor Sheary’s second goal in as many games (after just one goal in his previous 45) gave the Lightning a 3-0 lead before the period reached its midway point.
“To have that quick start [Saturday] helped us,” Hedman said. “But at the same time, it’s not going to be like that every game, so we’ve just got to make sure that we believe in ourselves and believe in what we can do. We showed that we’re a good team.”
All rise for the Duke
After acquiring Duclair, Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois lauded his “blazing speed,” and in his Tampa Bay debut Duclair showed the ability to stretch the ice and wreak havoc in the attacking zone.
He had the primary assist on Tampa Bay’s second goal — during his first power-play shift — and later scored his first goal in a Lightning uniform as part of a revamped second line with Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli.
“It’s really easy to be motivated, and it’s great to go right out there and playing winning hockey,” Duclair said. “So, obviously, all these games count and you want all these points so down the stretch, so just really excited to be here. Been thinking about this moment for a little bit now since I got traded, so I’m just happy with the way the night went.”
Coach Jon Cooper put Duclair on the second power-play unit in the net front position, and it quickly paid dividends. After a Darren Raddysh shot from the point rebounded in front of the net, Duclair and Nick Paul took turns swatting the puck back at Samuel Errson before Paul found a hole under the goaltender’s pads, putting Tampa Bay ahead 2-0 less than six minutes into the game.
It was one of three Tampa Bay goals in four chances with the man-advantage after the power play had gone 3-for-25 over the previous 10 games.
Then, with the Lightning up 4-0 late in the second period, Stamkos outraced Marc Staal across the blue line, creating a partial breakaway. Stamkos couldn’t get a shot off, but he stayed with the puck, circled back to the right circle and found Duclair wide open along the far post for an easy tip-in.
“I’ve seen him enough times making those backdoor plays, so I didn’t have to do much” Duclair said. “Just put my stick on the ice, and what a great pass.”
Dumba give Bolts a jolt
Dumba’s flight to Tampa arrived Saturday around 2 p.m. After getting his bags, he arrived at the arena around 3:30, giving him just enough time to grab something to eat, take a 15-minute nap and refuel with a couple of cups of coffee before his new teammates began to arrive.
Dumba then immediately added physicality to the Lightning blue line, logging 25 shifts and 20:04 of ice time, including 2:13 shorthanded. He even threw in a fight for good measure.
“I had to get the body going, just kind of talk myself into that,” Dumba said. “But coming to a team like this, it’s so exciting. I was pumped for the opportunity to play.”
Dumba took on Sean Couturier, pulling the Flyers’ top-line center and his 35 points off the ice for five minutes. He also nearly scored his first Lightning goal in the game, pinging a shot off the post.
“Matt comes in and brought instant energy, gets into a fight and does a lot of things that we need back there and competes really hard,” Cooper said.
