After a long rest the Tampa Bay Lightning came out and dominated the Montreal Canadiens in their first game following the holiday break. Brayden Point scored twice and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 of the 26 shots he faced. The Lightning dominated the dangerous areas of the ice as they doubled up the high-danger chances (24-11) and posted a 5.15 to 1.81 advantage in expected goals. Alex Killorn and Brandon Hagel added the other goals for the Lightning while Victor Hedman had two assists.
First Period:
The Lightning have traditionally struggled a bit after long layoffs, with sloppy passing and disjointed rushes, and just looking out of sync in general.