Burns: 3 Things we learned from a victory over the Rangers

The Tampa Bay Lightning again struggled to close out their opponent, getting outscored 2-0 in the third period by the New York Rangers Thursday night.
Fortunately for the Lightning, they played so well in the first two periods, the final 20 minutes were of little consequence.

Tampa Bay jumped on the Rangers from the opening puck drop, smothering them through the first 20 minutes in one of the best periods the Lightning have played this season. They continued their domination in the second, outscoring the Rangers 3-1 to take a 5-1 lead into the final period.
New York outplayed the Lightning in the third, but by that time, the Bolts were in safe mode trying to protect the lead.
Tampa Bay won its fourth game in a row. The Lightning extended their point streak to nine games, going 8-0-1 over that stretch.
And most importantly, they maintained their six point lead over Boston for first place in the Atlantic Division.
Why were the Lightning so dominant for much of the game tonight against the Rangers?
We'll break down the action and what got the Bolts to 47 wins and 98 points on the season.

1. QUICK START OVERWHELMS RANGERS
Just 22 seconds into the game, Steven Stamkos got the Lightning on the scoreboard, redirecting a puck off a rush into the back of the net.
Except the goal was immediately waved off on the ice. On replay, Stamkos batted a centering feed out of the air with his hand and past Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist.
No problem for the Bolts, who weren't going to let the early setback deter them.
At 2:31, Cedric Paquette scored a goal that counted, rebounding a Chris Kunitz saved shot into goal for his third marker of the season. A little more than five minutes later, Adam Erne wheeled around in the slot and fired past Lundqvist after receiving a nifty behind-the-back feed from Anthony Cirelli (more on him later).
Tampa Bay took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
"I think we played some really good hockey," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said following the game, summing up the first 20 minutes.
Even more impressive than the score, the Lightning held New York's offense to basically zip in the first period. After 10 minutes of play, the Bolts owned an unheard of 16-0 shot advantage. New York's first shot on goal didn't come until about nine minutes remained in the period. Tampa Bay finished the first period with a 21-5 advantage in shots, the 21 shots the most the Lightning have put up in a period this season.
"When we start a game like that, we play defense with the puck in the offensive zone, we don't give them many chances to gain that blue line and possess the puck like they did in the third," said Bolts forward Chris Kunitz, who tallied a goal and an assist Thursday for his third multi-point game of the season. "We've still got to do a better job of closing teams out…We can take some of the positives from the first period in there, that shot establishment really early that put them kind of on their heels for most of the game."

2. CIRELLI HAS STAYING POWER
Anthony Cirelli's arrival in the National Hockey League has been highly-anticipated by Lightning fans for some time now.
Cirelli, it seems, was well worth the wait.
Cirelli scored a goal and added an assist in his NHL debut on March 1 at Dallas.
On Thursday, he proved that scoring outburst in Big D wasn't a one-game fluke. Cirelli scored Tampa Bay's third goal against New York and assisted on two more for a three-point night, matching a Lightning franchise record for points in a game by a rookie.
"Confidence is a crazy thing, when you get it in this league, you want to hang onto it for as long as you can," Kunitz said. "It's something that your first game, your first shot, you can establish that confidence. He's a guy that plays hard, plays up the middle. He's going to be in your face playing that defensive side, but he can skate and shoot. He made a couple great plays tonight to pick up some points…He's a young kid that's playing with confidence, and that's a fun thing to see."
With the Lightning ahead 2-0 to start the second period, Cirelli extended the Bolts' lead by getting to the front of the net and tipping Mikhail Sergachev's shot past Lundqvist for his second career NHL goal.
But he's doing more than just putting up points.
His stat line from Thursday's game was quite full.
In addition to the three points, Cirelli was plus-3. He had 12:53 time on ice, playing over 10 minutes for the first time this season. He took three shots, dished out a hit, blocked a shot and had a takeaway. He saw 50 seconds of ice time on the penalty kill, and he won 7-of-15 face-offs, taking more draws Thursday night than any other player on the Lightning.
"Here's the thing, he's picked up some points, which has been great, but how's he playing in the circle?" Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "How's he doing defensively? How's he doing in those areas, and he's actually checking off a lot of the boxes. In this league and as we march forward and you're looking to win games in the playoffs, you need depth scoring. It can't come from all the same guys…He's showing a little bit of a knack and an ability to do it. We're not worried right now about the points he's putting up, it's can he handle himself down low? Can he do things in this league, and so far he's passing the test."

3. VASY THE G.O.A.T.
Lost in the Lightning's scoring explosion Thursday night, Andrei Vasileskiy made 27 stops on 30 shots to pick up his 40th win of the season.
That number is significant as it matches Ben Bishop's franchise record for most wins in a season established during the 2014-15 season.
And Vasilevskiy still has potentially 14 more games to break the record and set the bar so high it won't be broken for some time.
Vasilevskiy was barely tested in the first period as the Rangers finished with just five shots. But as New York started to pick up its offense in the second and third periods, Vasilevskiy was there to slam the door shut.
"The thing is, you can't say enough for what he's meant to our team and how well he's played," Cooper said. "You go through stretches where everybody sits there and says, 'Oh, he gave up three goals.' It's okay. How did we play as a team? What was contributing to why pucks went into the net? It was a pretty fortunate tip they got there at the end. He would maybe have liked not to give that one up. He gives us a chance to win every night. We've been in some situations here where we've been scoring some goals, but there's a lot of good that's slowly happening here with us and the way we're playing, and he's a big part of that…He's deserved to have the win totals he has."
Relatively early in his young career, Vasilevskiy is quickly acquiring most of the Lightning's major goaltending records.
Next one up?
The all-time Lightning win record. Vasilevskiy has 81 career wins and needs just two more to tie Nikolai Khabibulin for second place on the Bolts' leaderboard. Ben Bishop sits further away at the top of the list with 131 wins, but at the pace Vasilevskiy's been putting up wins, it's not unrealistic he could own that record too by the end of next season.