Wednesday, 4 a.m.
Don’t pay attention to their faces, which show the scars of a season at it winds down.
Pay attention to the way the puck comes off their stick. There, you will find the truth of Nikita Kucherov and Anthony Cirelli.
Cirelli, his face battered, scored two goals Tuesday night. Kucherov, a couple of teeth missing from his smile, had three points. Together, they led the Bolts to a 6-1 rout of the Pittsburgh Penguins that snapped a two-game losing streak.
The Bolts are no different. A lot of hockey plays are beaten up by this point in the season. It’s just with Kucherov and Cirelli, it shows.
Kucherov broke the 100-point barrier for the fifth time in his career, scoring a goal and getting two assists to get his point total to 101. Cirelli had has 26 goals — his previous high was 20 — and continued to spark the Bolts with his effort.
Also scoring for the Bolts were Ryan McDonaugh, Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel.
They scored four times in the first period on four consecutive shots.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy faced just 15 shots, but he stopped 14 of them for his 34th win of the season.
"There were things we need to work on defensively that we had lost our attention to detail on the road trip," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "That was a focal point going into that game. I liked the way we defended. The first period, the puck had eyes for us. Some nights, those don't go in. Tonight, they all went in."
The Bolts are home on Thursday night against Utah at 7 p.m.