Friday, 4 a.m.
Someday, perhaps soon, the bill will come due.
Someday, perhaps soon, the Tampa Bay Lightning will have to pay tomorrow. Perhaps then, they will suffer for all the draft picks they have sent willy-nilly across the league. Someday, perhaps the Bolts will get the bill for being an all-in-for-today franchise. Perhaps then, they will be unable to trade their way toward being an essential team.
Until then, doesn’t going-for-it feel nice?
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The Bolts were at it again Thursday, shopping tomorrow’s draft picks away for today’s players.
And, yeah, it paid a bit of dividend right off the bat, with newcomers Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde both contributing toward a 6-5 victory over Buffalo. And, in essence, isn’t that why the Bolts made the trade to begin with.
For years, the Bolts have operated this way. They have evaluated the draft, they say, and have discovered that their chances of finding a real player aren’t high in the position they draft. So they bring in players they like from across the league (Brandon Hagel, Nick Paul) to keep their depth strong. The strategy has kept the Bolts on the short list of contenders in the league.
Sure, they overpay at times (Tanner Jeannot comes to mind). But it's been a long time since you could suggest the Bolts are not trying to contend.
Will they this year? Who knows? Granted, the Bolts gave up a high price for Bjorkstrand and Gourde (two No. 1s, a No. 2, Mike Eyssimont). But the Lightning lacked depth before. This gives them a better shot.
For a night, it worked perfectly. The Bolts rallied from a 5-3 deficit to beat Buffalo.
Jake Guentzel had a hat trick in the second period to tie the game. Bjorkstrand broke the tie in his Bolts’ debut.
The Bolts were strong in shutting out the Sabres in the third period. They finished with Buffalo having a 6-3 man advantage. Erik Cernak made the winning play with a sliding block of a shot by Tage Thompson to kill the clock.
Also scoring for the Bolts were Paul and Darren Raddysh.
Andrei Vasilevskiy won his 30th game of the season, stopping 28 of 33 shots.
It is the eighth straight season Vasilevskiy has won at least 30 games.
The Lightning are home against Boston on Saturday at 3 p.m.