Anthony Cirelli? He bleeds. Those are all compliments, by the way. Shorthand for a signature style of play. Point, the world knows, is quick and elusive. Kucherov, we’ve all come to understand, is a visionary in skates.

Here are three reasons to like the Lightning’s new-look power play. Thursday’s moves were transformative, because the personnel and positional changes made it difficult to tell which was the top unit and which was the second. Point men Victor Hedman and Darren Raddysh switched units, with Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel matched with Raddysh.

Jake Guentzel, who won a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 2017, had two assists to become the second player in Lightning history with at least 20 goals and 40 points in his first 40 games with the franchise. Guentzel signed a seven-year deal with the team in the offseason.

Nikita Kucherov had two goals and an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 on Sunday. Brandon Hagel also scored for the Lightning, and Anthony Cirelli and Nick Paul had empty-net goals.

Nikita Kucherov swiped the puck and converted on a breakaway with three minutes remaining as the Tampa Bay Lightning broke a tie and claimed the season series from the host Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2, on Sunday.

Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov tallied three points during their victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday evening. Kucherov would score his first goal of the game late in the second period on a slap shot.

THROUGH GAMES OF SUNDAY, JAN. 19, 2025

The Lightning right wing scores a highlight-reel goal and becomes the second player in team history to claim 600 assists.

The Tampa Bay Lightning got back in the win column on Thursday night, defeating the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 in a shootout at AMALIE Arena to earn a season series split with their Western Conference opponent. Jake Guentzel scored the lone goal in the three-round shootout.

This was a high-shot volume, high-chance game that featured terrific goaltending from Andrei Vasilevskiy and Lukas Dostal. The teams each scored three goals through 60 minutes but easily could have exceeded that total. In the end, the Lightning netted the only goal in the shootout to secure a crucial second point in the standings.

Anaheim opened the scoring 6:03 into the game on a redirection by forward Troy Terry, but the Lightning tied the score eight minutes later on the power play. Hedman got the puck at the left point and fed forward Brandon Hagel in the right corner, where the latter passed the puck to Anthony Cirelli at the back post for a tap-in and a tie game.

The Tampa Bay Lightning fought to earn three standings points this weekend despite trailing in each of their back-to-back games on the road, a trip that culminated with a comeback victory in Pittsburgh on Sunday. The Lightning tied Saturday’s game against the New Jersey Devils in the third period before falling 3-2 in overtime.