Burns: Handing out midseason awards for the Bolts

We've reached the midpoint of the Tampa Bay Lightning season.
Okay, so technically, the midpoint came after the Ottawa game, but with the team in the middle of a week-long break, now seems like as good a place as any to catch our breath and reflect.
Although the injury to All-Star defenseman Victor Hedman Thursday night versus Calgary puts a damper on an otherwise spectacular start to the season, the Lightning have plenty to be proud of. They own the best record in the NHL and are 10 points clear of Boston atop the Atlantic Division standings.

The Bolts have scored more goals than any other team in the NHL. They've given up the second-least amount in the League.
A look at the statistical leaders shows a heavy slant toward Tampa Bay. Nikita Kucherov paces the NHL for scoring by a fairly sizable margin and is locked in a heated race with fellow Russian Alex Ovechkin for the most goals in the League. Steven Stamkos is in the mix as well, ranking in the top 10 for scoring and assists. Hedman headlines the NHL's plus/minus leaders at plus-24 and is one of the top-scoring defensemen in the League. And Andrei Vasilevskiy is at the top of every major goaltending statistic.
Admit it, this season has been pretty fun so far to watch.
As the Lightning gear up for the regular season's stretch run and a potential playoff berth, let's look back at what's made the first half of the season so successful and what to look forward to in the second half.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
The Big Cat - Andrei Vasilevskiy
Sure Nikita Kucherov is putting up video game-like numbers and Steven Stamkos has returned to his pre-injury form to scare the bejeezus out of the rest of the NHL, but goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has been the main catalyst behind the Lightning's tremendous first half of the season.
Don't believe me?
Just ask his teammates.
"He's been our best player all year," Chris Kunitz said following a 2-0 win in Toronto, Vasilevskiy's second-straight shutout victory.
"He's so committed to getting better," Alex Killorn added. "…For him, the sky's the limit."
Since being handed the reins to the No. 1 goaltending spot in Tampa Bay, Vasilevskiy has been nothing short of spectacular. He leads the NHL for wins (27) and shutouts (6) this season. His goals-against average (2.18) and save percentage (.930) are tops in the League for goalies with 15 or more starts.
But beyond the numbers, Vasilevskiy has a knack for making the key save in moments of the game when the outcome is hanging in the balance.
In the aforementioned win in Toronto, he made a critical stop on an Auston Matthews' left circle one-timer early in the game to keep it scoreless. He made a few more flashy saves before the Lightning were finally able to get on the board in the second period. And once the Bolts went up 2-0, Vasilevskiy kept it there.
Even when things aren't flowing offensively for the Lightning, there's no panic. And that's because they have Andrei Vasilevskiy in net to keep them in the game until the offense clicks.
"He makes us a little bit bigger on the bench, that's for sure," Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said.

MUP - MOST UNDERRATED PLAYER
Yanni Gourde
When Yanni Gourde entered training camp fresh off signing a two-year, one-way contract in the offseason, it was unknown where he would slot in to the Lightning lineup.
A top nine role would be preferred, but the Bolts already had a number of smallish forwards with big offensive games - Tyler Johnson, Brayden Point, Vladislav Namestnikov, etc. - ahead of him in the rotation. He could target a spot on the fourth line, but his skill set didn't seem to match the bruisers that lined up there.
Gourde, however, had such a good training camp, and this coming on the eve of an eye-opening end-of-the-season performance with the Lightning in 2016-17 as well as a MVP-caliber playoff run for the Syracuse Crunch, he forced himself into a prominent role among the Lightning forward group.
Through the first half of the season, Tampa Bay's belief in Gourde has played big dividends.
Gourde has proven adept at lining up where the Lightning place him. He thrived on a second line on the right wing with Ondrej Palat and Brayden Point as linemates. He continued to find success as the third line center after Tyler Johnson moved up to the second line and Gourde slotted in between Alex Killorn and Cory Conacher (or, of late, on the wing again with Killorn and Namestnikov).
Gourde currently ranks sixth on the Lightning for goals (14) and seventh for points (30).
He's been a valuable member of the Bolts' second power-play unit, chipping in four goals to give that unit as much bite as the first group. And his relentless work harassing puck handlers has been the biggest development for the penalty kill as well.
Not a bad return on investment for a guy making $1 million per season.
Also, shouts to Anton Stralman for MUP. This guy never gets the credit he deserves, but he's the Lightning's best defensive defenseman and his mentorship of Mikhail Sergachev has allowed the youngster to thrive in his rookie season.
Stralman has paced the NHL for plus/minus for large stretches of the season and currently ranks tied for fourth at plus-21.
With Hedman hurt and unable to play in the All-Star Game, names like Toronto's Morgan Rielly and even Sergachev have been tossed out as potential replacements.
Why is Stralman never included in that group? Why is he never in the Norris Trophy conversation? I realize his offensive numbers aren't up there with the Hedman's and the Erik Karlsson's and the Brent Burns' in the League, but if you're talking about top defensive D-men, there might not be any better than Anton Stralman.

BEST WORST NEWS:
Hedman out 3 to 6 weeks with a lower-body injury
Be honest: The first time you saw the replay of Victor Hedman's knee bending inward at an angle it's not supposed to bend after taking a direct hit from the knee of the Calgary Flames' Garnet Hathaway, your first thought was, 'Man, that was bad. Hedman might be finished for the season.'
Same
So when news came out the following day Hedman would miss the next three to six weeks with a lower-body injury, it felt like more of a relief than anything.
Yeah, the Lightning will be without their best defenseman, an All-Star and a top candidate for the Norris Trophy well into February.
But it could have been so much worse.
If Hedman needs the full six weeks to recover, that would bring him back for Tampa Bay's game February 24 at Montreal, game No. 62 of the 82-game regular season. That means, Hedman will still have 21 regular season games to help the Lightning down the stretch run and would certainly be back to his old self for the playoffs, should the Bolts qualify as expected.
And there's a silver lining to Hedman being out too. The Lightning will be forced to learn to win without him, giving other players in less prominent roles a chance to prove they deserve more playing time and responsibility. Slater Koekkoek, in particular, stands to benefit. He's played in roughly half of the Lightning's games so far and has been healthy scratched for the others. But with Hedman out, he'll likely be a regular contributor, especially since, like Hedman, he's a left-shot defenseman. Koekkoek would like to be a mainstay in the Lightning's top six D. He has an opportunity now to prove he deserves it.
Too, the challenge of winning without Hedman could be motivating for the Bolts at a time of the season when complacency usually sets in, especially for a team like Tampa Bay that has gotten off to such a great start and has built a commanding lead in the Atlantic Division as well as the Eastern Conference. They don't call late January into February the dog days of the season for nothing. It's usually when the grind of an 82-game season hits teams the hardest. Now, the Lightning have an obstacle to overcome right in the heart of the dog days, and in a season that's been relatively adversity-free over the first 44 games, the task of overcoming Hedman's loss could keep the team more engaged than they would be otherwise.

BEST POST-GAME RANT
Jon Cooper's 'entitled' comments following a 6-3 loss in Ottawa
The Lightning had just experienced one of its worst periods of the season, tied 3-3 after two in Ottawa but getting outscored 3-0 over the final 20 minutes in a head-scratching loss to a Senators team near the bottom of the Atlantic Division standings. Cooper watched his team lose for the second game in a row, and with a tough road trip finale coming in Detroit the next night on the second half of a back-to-back set, he knew he better get his group's attention before the minor slump became a full-fledged losing skid. His unprompted comment after the game was as follows:
"That's the definition of a tough loss, and I'll tell you why. This is a really hard league to win in. When you're put in situations where you're playing a team on a back-to-back, kind of have to take advantage of those because there's going to be times when you're on the second half of a back-to-back. I think there's a little bit of entitlement running through our team right now. What's a little discouraging is our goaltender who's been, in my opinion, our MVP this year and for us to let him down like that, those goals going in the start of the period were men's league goals, and that's just a non-commitment to playing in your own end. To win in this league, you have to play in your own end. There's a group of guys that are going to have to circle the wagons in there, the leaders, and figure this one out because we're just going down a road right now, it's that part of that season right now where you just can't let things slide. The regular season, you can't win a Stanley Cup in the regular season. You have to get to the playoffs first. And I think there's a team in there that thinks we've already made the playoffs. And with that attitude, we're not going to go anywhere. I feel bad for our goaltender. Can't spot them a 3-0 lead in this league and expect to come back. Give them a little credit for coming back, but in the end, the same mistakes cost us and give Ottawa credit, they didn't care who they were playing, they just came out and played a hockey game and won it. So good on them."
The next night, the Lightning absorbed the brutish physicality with which the Red Wings were determined to play and delivered a few haymakers of their own, responding with a resounding 5-2 victory to cap a successful road trip and prove to their coach they weren't just going through the motions.
Players may not have bought in to Cooper's 'entitled' message. But they heard it. And they went out the next day to rectify it.
Mission accomplished