Burns: 3 Things we learned from blanking the Stars

After having four prior meetings postponed and rescheduled due to COVID-19 concerns and inclement weather, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars, now division rivals for the first time, played their first game since the 2020 Stanley Cup Final the Bolts won last September in six games.
Once the puck dropped Saturday and the game progressed, however, it became just another game between two Central Division teams looking to add another win and two points to their record.

"It's certainly not the feel that it is the last time we played them, that's for sure," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said.
Part of that might be on account of how thoroughly the Lightning dominated the Stars Saturday, nothing like the hotly-contested, back-and-forth series played in September.
Tampa Bay got a power-play tally in the first period from Ondrej Palat to grab the game's opening goal then took control of the contest in the second by outscoring the Stars 3-0 in the middle frame en route to a 5-0 victory.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 20 shots he faced for his second-consecutive start with a shutout, the fifth time in his career Vasilevskiy has posted shutouts in back-to-back starts.
Last week, the Lightning were reeling a bit having lost three of four games to teams above them in the division standings.
Now, they've won four in a row, are back atop the Central on point percentage and tied with Florida on points and feeling plenty confident after three-straight wins against the Carolina Hurricanes and following up with a spectacular performance against the Stars.

1. PERFECT SPECIAL TEAMS
It's rare a NHL team has a game where they are perfect on special teams.
Usually there's a power play or two that doesn't connect. Or maybe the PK kills five opponent power plays but gives up a goal on a sixth.
But Tampa Bay accomplished the feat against Dallas on Saturday. The power play got two opportunities and scored on both. And the penalty kill was a perfect 6-for-6 while Anthony Cirelli, who returned after missing the previous six games with an upper-body injury, netted the first shorthanded goal of the season for the Lightning.
Special teams were a major reason the Lightning won handily over the Stars.
"That was a catalyst for our win tonight," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said postgame. "You can't take six penalties. That was unfortunate. But to do what we did on the penalty kill, Cirelli came in and helped out and we needed him because we were rolling four (forwards) the last few games and to be able to have another solid penalty killer helped us out. But the guys as a group were fantastic. Anytime you take six penalties and you come out of it up 1-0 with the shorty, that's a good sign for you."
Tampa Bay broke through just three seconds into its opening power play, Ondrej Palat getting the puck off a scramble play and beating Stars goalie Anton Khudobin with an accurate shot. The power play connected again on its second and final opportunity late in the second period, Patrick Maroon posting up at the far post and Tyler Johnson threading a pass through a pair of legs for Maroon to redirect into the net.
"We were certainly better tonight," Stamkos said of the power play, which went 0-for-5 against Carolina Thursday and looked completely out of sorts. "It was nice to get one kind of off a broken play on the face-off, just give us some confidence going and the other group a great play. Hopefully we can use that going forward."
Dallas, meanwhile, never even threatened Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy over its six power-play opportunities. Most of the time, the Stars spent the two minutes regrouping and trying to figure out a different way to enter the zone to no avail.
In the second period with Tampa Bay leading 1-0 and on the penalty kill, a Lightning clear attempt hit a Dallas player at the left point and started a 2-on-1 break the other way for the Bolts. Cirelli took possession of the puck in the offensive zone and made a slick play at the net to get the puck on his backhand and lift a shot past a beaten Khudobin to make it 2-0 Lightning.
"Special teams is a huge part tonight," Cirelli said. "I think whenever we have a kill or get a power-play goal I think it just kind of gives us overall a confidence boost, throws momentum our way. We've been pretty good lately. We've just got to stick to it, keep focusing on our next kill and our next power play and kind of just keep building momentum off of that."

2. A COMPLETE EFFORT
For the first five or so minutes of the game, the Lightning found themselves hemmed in their own end, unable to break the puck completely out of the zone and forced to defend.
Once they got through that rough patch to start the game, though, Tampa Bay took control and was unrelenting in its play in as complete a game as the team has played all season.
All four lines for the Lightning were rolling and played a part in the team's success. The defense was masterful in the way it limited a dangerous Dallas attack to just 20 shots, none of them really coming close to threatening Vasilevskiy. Special teams, as mentioned earlier, were perfect. So too was Vasilevskiy, who wasn't called upon often Saturday night but made the saves he needed to make look routine.
"We talked about how impressed we were with just really limiting their chances, which was big," Stamkos said. "They pushed the first five, seven minutes. They're a really good hockey team. The score probably didn't indicate that tonight. They pushed and we responded. I think we did a really good job. We had a couple turnovers early then we corrected and really made it tough on them to create much and when they did Vasy was there. I really liked our overall game tonight."
The Lightning felt their game versus Carolina Thursday wasn't their best effort despite prevailing 3-1. Saturday was a return to the norm of what the Lightning expect themselves to play like night in and night out.
"We did some good things tonight," Cooper said. "We needed a bounce-back game after we thought was a sub-par performance. And bolstered by Tony coming back. We did some good things. You want the guys to feel good about themselves. In the end, it's two points. And we've got to move on and play them in a couple nights here. I'm sure they'll make some adjustments, and now we're going to be on the road, so we'll have to make some adjustments and hope we just get the same effort."
Tampa Bay's performance Saturday was a reminder how good this team can be when it's at its best.
"We have a game plan in place, and I thought we stuck to that pretty well for the whole game," Cirelli said. "It's good to feel good and be good in our structure, play the right way. Line after line just feeds off each other. I thought we did pretty well."

3. A LOCKED-IN VASILEVSKIY
Following the win, Steven Stamkos was asked if he's ever seen a more locked-in Andrei Vasilevskiy as he has in the last week or so. Vasilevskiy posted his second-straight shutout on Saturday, making all 20 stops.
"It feels like he's locked in all the time to be honest with you with how amazing he is," Stamkos answered. "We see it every day in practice and in games. We'll say it over and over again. It's no surprise to us with the work ethic that he has and the preparation and just the determination once he gets in the net. We just try to make it as easy for him as we can. I thought tonight we did a really good job of keeping them to limited scoring chances and really blocking shots when we needed to especially on that penalty kill. He's the best goalie in the world for a reason and he's shown it here lately."
Vasilevskiy has now blanked the Dallas Stars over six-straight periods going back to Game 6 of the 2020 Stanley Cup Final when he made all 22 saves for his first career playoff shutout in the Cup-clinching win.
The Russian netminder picked up his 12th win of the season Saturday to pull into the NHL lead for goalie wins. He ranks sixth in the NHL with a 1.75 goals-against average. Of the five players in front of him, only one has played in more than 10 games (Vegas' Marc-Andre Fleury - 11 GP). Vasilevskiy's .938 save percentage is also sixth best.
Vasilevskiy has now gone seven-consecutive periods without allowing a goal, going back to the third period of Tampa Bay's 4-2 win Monday at Carolina. He made all 25 saves Wednesday in a 3-0 home win over Carolina. And he continued his torrid pace with Saturday's 20-save effort in a second-straight shutout.
Vasilevskiy posted shutouts in back-to-back starts for the fifth time in his career (he's done it each of the last five seasons). He's never gone three-straight starts with a shutout, however.
He'll likely get that chance Tuesday when the Lightning travel to Dallas to finish the two-game set against the Stars and kick start a six-game road trip.
With the way Vasilevskiy's playing currently, he'll have a good chance to accomplish the feat. And he might even surpass his own Lightning record for longest shutout streak of 184:06 set during the 2018-19 season.