Burns: 3 Things we learned from downing the Jets

Tampa Bay's 5-2 victory over the Central Division-leading Winnipeg Jets Tuesday night was one of the team's most impressive wins of the season.
Some uneven play had crept into the Lightning's game over the previous five contests, but, against the Jets, the Bolts were humming on all cylinders. Tampa Bay jumped in front just 1:34 in following Yanni Gourde's 18th goal of the season, extended its lead to 3-1 by the end of the second period and put the game out of reach midway through the third on Brayden Point's NHL-best 19th power-play goal of the season.

Both Winnipeg goals came on unfortunate circumstances on power plays that weren't entirely the Lightning's fault. Blake Wheeler leveled the score 1-1 in the first period after the Bolts failed to get a shot off on a shorthanded 2-on-1 break, the puck turned over quickly back the other way and Ryan McDonagh losing an edge to give the Jets a 3-on-1 they were able to convert.
In the third, Andrei Vasilevskiy went behind his net expecting to play the puck on a penalty kill but could only watch as it caromed off a stanchion and into the empty goal, a play Winnipeg's Jacob Trouba probably couldn't replicate with 1,000 tries on a practice rink.
The Lightning were thoroughly dominant in dispatching one of the League's best teams and improving to 51-12-4 (106 points) on the season, their game showing none of the weaknesses that plagued them in recent contests.
Here's how the Bolts got back on track.

1. 4TH LINE CONTRIBUTIONS
NHL leading scorer Nikita Kucherov called the Lightning's fourth line of Adam Erne, Cedric Paquette and Mathieu Joseph the team's best line against Winnipeg.
"They put the puck behind their D, they forechecked hard and they spent a lot of time in the offensive zone by doing this," Kucherov said.
They also scored two of Tampa Bay's five goals and were probably the deciding factor in the victory, the Bolts' superior depth showing when the trio was on the ice.
Erne put the Lightning in front for good at 8:58 of the second period after finishing off a 2-on-1 rush with Joseph, who threaded the needle to get a puck on the back post for Erne to slam home. Erne's marker was his first since December 29, and his celebration reflected the long drought between goals.
"It's been a while," Erne admitted after the game. "Obviously, you want to put pucks in the back of the net, but I feel like I've been playing well, and it was good to put one in."
Paquette provided the goal that was probably the end of the night for Winnipeg, the fourth line center hopping on a loose puck in the lower left circle and slapping a shot past Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck at 4:20 of the third to extend the Lightning lead to 4-1. Tampa Bay had controlled the game through the first two periods and owned a two-goal advantage as a result. Once the Bolts were able to increase their margin to three, one could sense the Jets weren't going to have it in them to find a way back into the game.
"Tonight, they were humming, all of those guys," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said of the fourth line. "Other than putting the puck in the net, they were a physical presence."
The fourth line combined for two goals, five points, 11 hits and were plus-five as a group.

2. ATTENTION TO (DEFENSIVE) DETAIL
The Lightning had been turning pucks over in their own end a little too frequently over the last handful of games entering the Winnipeg contest. That was an aspect of their game they wanted to clean up, especially before the playoffs when teams will punish them for those mistakes.
Their effort against the Jets was a giant step in the right direction. The Lightning had almost no ill-advised turnovers in their own end. They were responsible with the puck, not allowing a dangerous Jets team to create numbers advantages on the rush, save for a couple opportunities in the first period that were routinely handled by goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. And the Bolts were rewarded with a nearly flawless result defensively save for the aforementioned pair of unlucky bounces.
"I think we focused a lot on the defensive side of the game, not only in our zone but making sure we were on top of them in their zone," Erne said. "I felt like we did that really well tonight."
Because the Lightning were on top of their game defensively, their offense fed off the play in the back end, transitioning efficiently and effectively to create numerous odd-man rush situations. If not for some spectacular saves by Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck, the Lightning could have scored seven, maybe even eight goals on Tuesday.
The Lightning had all aspects of their game clicking against the Jets.
But it was the attention to detail on the defensive side of the puck that fueled the one-sided affair.
"I think it was a great team game in general," Joseph said. "All the guys came out and competed. We were above them and finishing hits and shooting pucks. I thought we started the game really well and kept going in the second and the third and good result overall."

3. MORE HISTORY MAKERS
The Lightning continue to pile up records as the regular season winds down, and Tuesday night's contest against Winnipeg was no exception.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 30 of the 32 shots he faced to earn his 10th-consecutive victory and pull within one win of tying Louis Domingue's franchise record 11-game win streak set earlier this season. Tampa Bay is now the first team ever in the NHL to feature two goalies each with win streaks of 10 more games in the same season.
Victor Hedman became the Lightning franchise leader for power-play scoring by a defenseman after notching the primary assist on Steven Stamkos' second period power-play goal. Hedman now has 127 career power-play points and passed former Bolt Dan Boyle atop the leaderboard.
Stamkos' power-play goal was No. 382 for his career. The Lightning captain now sits just one goal shy of Vincent Lecavalier's franchise record 383 career goals.
Nikita Kucherov tallied two assists Tuesday for his NHL-leading 32nd multi-point game of the season. Kucherov also picked up his 107th and 108th points to tie Lecavalier's record for most points in a single season set in 2006-07.
And Kucherov still has 15 more games to break the record and set the bar extremely high, making it tough for anybody in a Lightning jersey to ever approach the numbers he's putting up.
That is, until next season when Kucherov goes even higher.