Burns: 3 things we learned from a back-to-back sweep in Nashville

A lot of the pregame talk prior to Tampa Bay's second half of a back-to-back set in Nashville revolved around how Predators coach John Hynes made a number of lineup changes to try to spark his team that had lost four of its last five games.
The Predators held a closed-door team meeting after Monday night's 4-1 loss to the Lightning to try to right the ship.
And yet, Tuesday's outcome was even more lopsided than the night before.
Tampa Bay fell behind 1-0 early and then scored six unanswered goals to win 6-1, recording its largest margin of victory and scoring its most goals this season in the process.

The Lightning outscored the Predators 10-2 over the sweep of the back-to-back set.
Overall, the Bolts have won all four meetings against Nashville, taking two at AMALIE Arena last week and following with two more at Bridgestone Arena, all four wins coming in a span of 11 days.
Tampa Bay has now won six games in a row - the longest win streak in the NHL so far this season - and is 9-1-1 (19 pts.) on the season, tied for its best start through 11 games in franchise history (also: 9-1-1 in 2017-18).

1. MATCHING THE INTENSITY
Certainly, Nashville, a playoff-caliber team reeling right now and outside the playoff picture, was going to come out with its best effort of the season against Tampa Bay having lost three in a row to the Lightning in the season's early going.
The Predators made a conscious choice to be more physical against the Lightning right from the opening puck drop to try to get the Bolts out of their game.
And it worked.
For maybe 10 minutes.
The Lightning committed three penalties in the first half of the opening period and fell behind 1-0 when Dante Fabbro cut in front of Victor Hedman on a rush and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy at the far post from the left circle less than five minutes into the contest.
But once the Lightning weathered the only storm and stopped committing so many penalties, it was back to business as usual for the Bolts.
Steven Stamkos cleaned up some loose change on the back post just after a Lightning power play expired to level the score 1-1 at 11:28 of the first. Ondrej Palat connected on another power play moments later to give the Lightning the lead for good. And Mathieu Joseph extended the advantage to 3-1 after Mikhail Sergachev found him wide open charging toward the back post.
In a 2:35 span, the Bolts turned a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead and were well on their way to a win before the first period had concluded.
"I think the best part was we really matched up their intensity in the first period," Lightning center Yanni Gourde said. "They came out flying. They came out hitting. We matched that up. That group we have back here, we want to go to work with each other, and I think that's what we showed in the first period. Really I think that was a big key of this game was the way we showed up in the first period even though they came out flying."
For a team that put so much emphasis on this game and made so many personnel and line changes in an effort to spark a victory, Nashville had to be demoralized staring at the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline during the first intermission after executing its game plan so well in the opening stages of the game.
"Got to give them credit in the first period: They came out and hit us right from the first shift," Joseph said. "They played physical. They were in your face a lot. We took a couple penalties, and they scored early. I think when we tied the game, after that on their chance on the power play, we kind of tried to dictate the game physically a little bit. I think we answered with a lot of physicality."
The Lightning matched Nashville's physicality with more physicality of their own.
And once the Bolts took that aspect of their game away, the Predators had no other answers.

2. SPECIAL TEAMS DOMINATION
Each team committed four penalties in the opening period and had three power-play opportunities.
The Lightning converted one of those power plays into a goal and could pretty much chalk a second goal up to a power play as Steven Stamkos' tying goal came seven seconds after a penalty to Michael McCarron expired but with the puck still buried deep in the Predators' end and the Preds scrambling to maintain coverage.
Nashville, meanwhile, came up empty on all three of its power plays, setting the stage for a dominant night special teams-wise for the Bolts.
Tampa Bay netted two more power-play goals later in the third period, Steven Stamkos scoring his second goal of the game on the opening two minutes on a double minor to Ryan Ellis for high-sticking. Mathieu Joseph tallied his second goal of the game on the back end of the double minor, scoring the first power-play goal of his NHL career.
"It was big today. We needed to be better," Stamkos said about the power play. "They had a good game plan against us last time, so we made some adjustments. Nice to see it go in. Kind of sparked us a little bit early, and then to get a couple late is good for the confidence."
In all, the Lightning went 3-for-5 on the power play, recording a season high for power-play goals in a game and their most since netting three on the power play in a 6-1 win over Florida on December 23, 2019.
"The stat line will say 3-for-5, but you could argue it was 4-for-5," head coach Jon Cooper said. "They came out energized as we knew they would, and they were trying to play a physical game. Sometimes when you're going to do that, you might be apt to take some penalties. They did and we made them pay, and that was it."
The Lightning were perfect on the penalty kill, going 4-for-4 and limiting the number of good looks on the power play for Nashville to a scant few.
Tampa Bay's ability to vastly outplay its opponent in the special teams department was maybe the biggest reason the Lightning were able to rout the Predators Tuesday night.
"Special teams, we talk about it all the time, it's the difference in games," Stamkos said. "And on the penalty kill, it starts with our goaltender and then it starts with our guys that are out there sacrificing their bodies. And we did a great job tonight."

3. MANAGING THE GAME
Once the Lightning went up 3-1 and took that advantage into the first intermission, they never seemed in any danger of losing that lead the rest of the way.
Tampa Bay has done a phenomenal job this season managing the game when holding a lead, and that continued Tuesday in Nashville. The Lightning tightened up defensively in the second and third periods, making life in the offensive zone difficult for the Predators if they could even get there for any sustained amount of time.
The Lightning didn't make any risky plays that could have led to turnovers. They made the smart, simple decisions that forced the Predators to have to work the entire 200 feet of the ice to generate anything offensively. And with the way the Lightning have been defending of late, that proved a near impossible task. For a second-straight night, the Bolts wouldn't allow the Preds to get inside them in the offensive zone, forcing everything to the perimeter where shots could be blocked or tracked easily by Vasilevskiy.
"I think in the last three years, we've worked a lot on managing the puck, not turning pucks over, especially with the lead," Mathieu Joseph said. "Obviously, it's not going to work every night. We're not going to be perfect every night, but I thought the guys, we played solid. We forechecked them like we did the night before. It's hard for a team to always have to break the puck out. I thought overall everyone was dialed in about not turning pucks over. The bench was alive about managing the puck, and Vasy was there to make the saves. The defensemen did some great blocks, played well in their zone and I think that's the mentality we want to have. We want to play well in our zone, and it's going to turn into chances like we had tonight."
Tampa Bay entered Tuesday's game allowing the fewest goals per game in the NHL. The Lightning have given up only one goal in each of their last four contests. The Bolts' goal differential in those four is a combined 18-4.
Part of that success is due to how Tampa Bay smothers opponents once it gets a lead. That forces the opposition to open things up to try to get something going, which has given the Lightning opportunities going the other way, opportunities they've converted.
"We definitely played really good in the third period," Yanni Gourde said. "We don't want to allow them any scoring chances. They had a few, but Vasy was solid in net. He blocked everything. Our D were phenomenal tonight. Mac truck, name them, they've been so good and it's fun to watch, and these guys are playing amazing back there."