Burns: 3 things we learned from a third-straight win

When Tampa Bay started a four-game, pre-All-Star game road trip with a disheartening 5-2 defeat in Minnesota coming on the heels of two previous losses, confidence for the Bolts bottomed to a season low.
What a difference four days can make.
That losing skid now seems but a fading memory.

Tampa Bay rolled over the Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday, capping a terrific turnaround in which the Bolts won three straight to finish the trip after blanking Chicago 2-0 on Monday and rallying to win 4-3 in overtime Tuesday in Nashville, a place they hadn't won since 2008.
"As bad as that first Minnesota game was, it feels pretty good to win three out of four on this trip," Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman said from the locker room following the Bolts' NHL-leading 34th victory of the season.
That confidence? Sky high as the Bolts take four days off for the All-Star Game in Tampa.
Well, some of the Lightning at least will get time away from the rink. Four Bolts - Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Brayden Point - will play in the All-Star Game, and Jon Cooper will coach in it.
Certainly, they'll receive a hero's welcome when they return to AMALIE Arena for the league showcase, and rightly so for the way they've played heading in.
But before the festivities begin, let's take a closer look into Tampa Bay's recent run in Three Things we learned in Philly.

1. LIGHTNING YOUNGSTERS CAN PLAY
   Bolts fans already have plenty to be excited about with the team sitting atop the NHL standings heading into the All-Star break.
   But here's another reason to get downright giddy: the Lightning have plenty of young, talented players breaking their way in the lineup, ensuring the team should remain a contender for the foreseeable future.
   Those youngsters' talents were on full display Thursday night in Philadelphia.
   Recently-named NHL All-Star Brayden Point, just 21 years old, provided Tampa Bay with the game's opening goal, scoring 25 seconds into the first period by grabbing a loose puck in the slot and backhanding it past Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth with an effortless flick.
   Point netted his 20th goal of the season, joining fellow All-Star Nikita Kucherov (27) as the only Bolts to reach the 20-goal mark so far this season.
   "We have a lot of guys that can step up for us," Cooper said. "But he seems to do it on a regular basis."
   Later in the period, Matthew Peca, recalled from AHL Syracuse earlier on the road trip with the injury to Ondrej Palat and named to his first AHL All-Star Game at age 24, showed his playmaking ability and calmness in a critical moment. After grabbing hold of the puck at the edge of the crease and with a two-on-one advantage in close with Yanni Gourde, Peca sent a shot toward goal that Neuvirth was forced to block away right into the path of Gourde, who was waiting at the back post to pot the rebound.
   Gourde, 26, has scored in three-straight games and has 17 goals in his rookie season, sixth most by a rookie in Lightning history.
   Peca tallied his first assist of the season and third NHL point of his career.
   Certainly, there will be plenty more in the future for Peca. Gourde and Point too.
   And the Lightning stand to reap the benefits for years to come.

2. BOLTS MIGHT CHALLENGE FOR FRANCHISE SHORTHANDED GOAL RECORD
   Ryan Callahan made the play of the game when he dangled around Shayne Gostisbehere to spring loose for a shorthanded breakaway and deposited the puck into the back of the Flyers' net.
   The goal was cathartic for Callahan, who hadn't scored since Oct. 24 at Carolina, a stretch of 28 games without lighting the lamp.
   It also gave the Lightning a big lift on the bench and a 3-0 lead late in the second period.
   "I've seen that move before. It's been a while though," Stralman said, smiling. "It was good for him to get that goal. He's huge on the penalty kill with the amount of shots he blocks and to be able to do a coast-to-coast unassisted goal like that, it was nice."
   "Whether you're a fan of us or not, that was a really nice hockey play," Cooper added. "That was a big goal. That was the one that probably took the wind out of their sails, 2-0 game and late in the second period."
   The goal was the Bolts' second shorthanded tally of the trip and eighth of the season, already more than they had all of last season. In fact, the Lightning are beginning to creep toward the all-time franchise record for shorthanded goals in a season, set during the 2003-04 Stanley Cup season when they scored 15, eight of which came off the stick of Marty St. Louis.
   They only have 32 games to go, so reaching 15 could be a stretch. But the fact they're even in the conversation shows how, no matter the situation, the Lightning are a threat to score at any time.

3. VASILEVSKIY REGAINS HIS SWAG
   As magnificent as Andrei Vasilevskiy had been through the first half of the season, his play dipped once the calendar turned to 2018.
   Since the start of the new year, Vasilevskiy lost five of his first seven starts and went on his first losing skid of the season, dropping three-straight games following a 30-of-34 save performance in Minnesota Jan. 20.
   Suddenly, there were whispers that maybe the workload was catching up to Vasilevskiy. Or perhaps other teams were figuring him out.
   Vasilevskiy quickly laid those fears to rest, however, with his play over his last two starts.
   In Chicago, Vasilevskiy was in a word, brilliant, stopping all 40 shots he face to record his NHL-best seventh shutout of the season and tie Nikolai Khabibulin for the franchise record for most shutouts in a season.
   Vasilevskiy nearly had the record all to himself in Philadelphia, keeping the Flyers off the scoreboard for two periods and well into the third before Travis Konecny connected on a power play at 13:18 after the Flyers pulled their goalie for a 6-on-4 advantage.
   That was the only shot to elude Vasilevskiy as he made 36 saves to improve to 29-9-2 on the season.
   "He's unreal every game," said Vladislav Namestnikov, who scored a pair of goals in the third period for his second multi-goal game of the season and registered career goal No. 50 with his first tally. "He was solid back there again and he's a big reason we won again."
   Vasilevskiy was most impressive in the opening period, when Philadelphia outshot the Lightning 9-3 and had several chances to get a leg up early. Once the Lightning survived that onslaught, they were able to pull away, Brayden Point scoring 25 seconds into the second period for the game's first goal and the Bolts pouring it on from there.
   But they have Vasilevskiy to thank for allowing them to reach that point.
   "He played great. Fantastic," Stralman said. "He held the fort down in the first period. We could easily have been a couple goals behind going into the second and it's a different game. He did a great job keeping us in there."