Burns: Three Things we learned from a fifth-straight win

Back to nearly full strength health-wise for one of the first times this season, the Tampa Bay Lightning continue to roll along.
The Lightning allowed two goals within the first four minutes to the Ottawa Senators Tuesday night at AMALIE Arena and then rallied for five unanswered goals to breeze past the Sens 5-2 and win their fifth game in a row, equaling their longest win streak of the season.

With the victory, the Bolts leapfrogged the idle Florida Panthers and moved into sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division standings.
Brayden Point scored a goal and added an assist for a four-point night, the fourth of his career and first this season. Steven Stamkos netted the game-winning, go-ahead goal on a power play at 5:18 of the second period for his 174thcareer power-play marker, moving past Jean Beliveau and Ray Bourque and into sole possession of 30th place among the NHL's all-time power-play goal leaders. And Nikita Kucherov continued his torrid point pace, notching a goal and assist for the fourth-consecutive game, giving him 11 multi-point games this season in just 17 games played.
The Lightning will go for a season-high six-straight wins when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night. Here's how they collected their 35th win of the season on Tuesday.

1. HUMAN NATURE
After the spectacle that was the Stadium Series game in Nashville over the weekend, there was a high likelihood the Lightning might come out flat three nights later against the Ottawa Senators, the sixth place team in the Atlantic Division.
Corey Perry said it was "human nature" to expect a bit of a letdown.
Ottawa scored just 1:11 into the contest when Tyler Ennis got a tip of Thomas Chabot's point shot past Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Senators shockingly pushed their advantage to 2-0 when Zach Sanford hopped on a loose puck in the right circle and fired a shot off the far post and in.
"We didn't have a great start the first five, 10 minutes, down 2-0 right away," Perry said. "We saw our game evolve after that and slowly take over the hockey game."
The Lightning never panicked despite the early hole. Nikita Kucherov got the Lightning on the board at 7:15 of the first after receiving a pass along the wall, skating unimpeded toward goal and backhanding a shot past Senators goalie Matt Murray. Seven-and-a-half minutes later, Ondrej Palat led a rush into the offensive zone and dropped a pass for the trailer Brayden Point, who smoked a shot in from the left circle to tie the game 2-2, where it would remain heading into the first intermission.
"Our big boys stepped up and made some plays and got us back into the game," Perry said.
From that point, the rest of the game was controlled by the Lightning. Stamkos netted his power-play marker to put the Lightning in front for the first time 5:18 into the second period. And Perry gave the Bolts a multi-goal lead after outbattling a pair of Senators on the edge of the crease for a loose puck and slipping it by Murray.
Ottawa never threatened to get back in the game, the Lightning taking complete command.
Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said he wouldn't let the first five minutes detract from how his team played over the final 55.
"We talked about it this morning, we just played an event that was not normal," Cooper said. "To come back, regardless of who we were playing, there was that potential to tiptoe into the game. We definitely did that. Give Ottawa credit, they came out hard. But, I liked our response. Guys dug their heels in."
Cooper also credited Vasilevskiy with keeping the Senators within striking distance. At 2-0, Ottawa had a couple good looks on a 4-on-4 Vasilevskiy was able to stop, allowing the Bolts to mount their comeback.
"We go down 3-0 there, who knows how that game goes," Cooper said. "He keeps us at a 2-0 game, makes it a little more manageable to come back. And so, give Vasy a lot of credit there for the saves he made."

2. SCORING FROM EVERYONE
Corey Perry said it was the "big boys" like Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point who brought the Lightning into the game with their back-to-back goals after the Bolts fell behind 2-0.
But the Lightning got production up and down their lineup, from lines one through four and all three defensive pairs Tuesday night to soundly defeat the Senators.
That's been a hallmark of this team all season.
Five different players scored the Lightning's five goals against Ottawa. Nine players registered at least one point.
Tampa Bay has proven to be a difficult team to defeat because opponents can't focus on shutting down just one or two lines. All four can drive the offense. And if the forwards aren't producing, the defensemen can carry the load.
The Lightning have one of the more balanced lineups in the National Hockey League, and it showed again in Tuesday's victory.
"You're not going to go anywhere if you just depend on one line," Cooper said. "That's a big part for us this year, is we've had that depth scoring especially with some of the guys that are used to scoring a lot not being in the lineup. It's a pretty big reason where we are in the standings."
When the Lightning were without perennial Art Ross candidate Nikita Kucherov for 32 games due to injury, they still went 20-7-3, their .703 point percentage second best in the League over that stretch. Their success was due to other players stepping up in the absence of Kucherov.
Now that Kucherov is healthy again and putting up points at nearly a two point a game pace, the Lightning seem to be clicking on all cylinders.

3. POINTS FOR POINT
Brayden Point said his first shift was not the way he wanted to start the game.
The centerman committed a pair of turnovers that allowed the Senators to keep the puck in the offensive zone, Ottawa eventually scoring when Thomas Chabot fired a wrist shot in from the point and Tyler Ennis in front to tip it past Vasilevskiy.
"Personally, that was a really tough shift that first one," Point said. "Just wasn't thinking. Way too casual. There's no excuse for that, but I guess sometimes it happens."
Point more than made up for his miscue in the shifts that followed the remainder of the game.
His pass to Nikita Kucherov set up the Lightning's opening goal that cut the deficit to one. And then he ripped a shot from the left circle into the back of the net later in the first period to level the score 2-2.
Point netted his 21st goal of the season and ranks second on the Lightning for goals despite missing a month of the season due to an upper-body injury.
Point wasn't close to finished in the game, however.
He tallied the second assist on Stamkos' power-play goal that put the Lightning in the lead for good about five minutes into the second period, Point having a hand in three-straight goals that saw the Bolts go from 2-0 down to up 3-2.
And in the third period, he provided the lone assist on Mikhail Sergachev's shot from the slot that gave the Lightning a bit of breathing room at 5-2 with a little more than 10 minutes remaining in the contest.
Point recorded the fourth four-point game of his career and his first of the season.
In the process, he extended his point streak to seven games (5-6-11 pts.), equaling his own mark for the longest scoring run this season on the Bolts (also: 5-4-9 pts. in 7 GP Jan. 4-16).
In the 22 games since he's come back from an upper-body injury that sidelined him for a month, Point has registered at least one point in 19 contests and leads the Lightning for goals and scoring over that stretch.