Lightning vs. Flyers: Andrei Vasilevskiy Catches Andy Moog on the Wins List as Philadelphia Stays Winless

Andrei Vasilevskiy has had busier nights at the office. Plenty of them. On Monday he faced 15 shots, stopped 14 of them, and walked out of Benchmark International Arena tied with Andy Moog on the NHL's career wins list, which is a pretty good return on a shift that mostly involved watching his teammates play keep-away.

Pontus Holmberg and Ilya Mikheyev each had a goal and an assist, Brayden Point scored his first of the season, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 on Monday night. Tampa Bay outshot Philadelphia 36-15, and the Flyers, still searching for their first win, fell to 0-2-2.

Tampa Bay Takes the Wheel Early

Tampa Bay finally broke through at 16:05 of the first. John Carlson threw a puck toward the net, and Point, parked below the hash marks, got a piece of it to steer it past Dan Vladar. Nikita Kucherov picked up the second assist, the first of two on his night.

Holmberg doubled the lead 17 seconds into the second period. Off the rush, Holmberg let a wrist shot go from the right circle and it went in high on the glove side. That was 2-0 before most of the crowd had settled back into their seats.

Philadelphia got one back at 7:22 on a bit of luck. Tyson Foerster fired from the top of the left circle and the puck clipped the stick of Lightning defenseman Charle-Edouard D'Astous on its way past Vasilevskiy. Sean Couturier and Nick Seeler drew the assists, and for a stretch it looked like the Flyers might steal something they had not earned on the shot clock.

Early in the third, Simon Benoit and Jeff Viel fought at 2:20, and each received a fighting major. The third-period power plays, one for each side, came and went without a goal, and Tampa Bay finally put it away late. At 17:00, Holmberg fed Mikheyev, who curled around the net and tucked a backhand wraparound past Vladar for a 3-1 lead. Brandon Hagel added an empty-net goal with seven seconds left, set up by Kucherov.

Vasilevskiy's Milestone Night

According to NHL.com, the win was the 372nd of Vasilevskiy's career, tying Moog for 20th all time. He was not tested much, but the one puck that beat him needed a deflection off his own defenseman to do it. Fourteen saves will not make anybody's highlight reel, yet a goalie's job is to make the save that matters, and Tampa Bay never let Philadelphia build enough pressure for one to come along.

Point's goal deserves its own paragraph. NHL.com noted that he scored 18 goals last season after putting up 139 over the previous three seasons combined, so the first one of a new year carries some weight. Point said the team had a clear message after its opening loss. "It was a big emphasis after that first game to win puck battles. I think the past two games we have done a good job with that," he said.

Coach Jon Cooper sounded like a man who believes the floodgates are about to open. "He's winning his battles. He's skating," Cooper said of Point, adding that his center "has been one of those guys when he gets one, he usually gets a bunch. Hopefully that's what happens."

Mikheyev's goal was his first with Tampa Bay since signing as a free agent on July 1, per NHL.com. Holmberg, who logged only 13:05, made the most of every second with two points. Kucherov finished with two assists in 21:59.

The Shot Clock Told the Whole Story

If you want one turning point, it is not a single shift. It is the gap on the shot clock. Tampa Bay generated 36 shots to Philadelphia's 15, and the Flyers blocked 19 more just to keep it that close. Vladar was excellent, stopping 32 of 35, and he kept the game within one goal until the final three minutes. But a team cannot live on 15 shots, and the Mikheyev wraparound at 17:00 finally confirmed what the shot totals had been saying all night.

Flyers forward Porter Martone put it plainly. "You can't be getting outshot like that," he said, before adding, "I'm a person where actions speak louder than words."

Stats That Matter

• 36-15: Tampa Bay's margin in shots on goal.
• 372: Career wins for Vasilevskiy, tied with Andy Moog for 20th in NHL history, per NHL.com.
• 19: Shots blocked by the Flyers, a big reason the score stayed 2-1 into the final three minutes.
• 0-for-6: Combined power-play results, with each team going 0-for-3.
• 2: Points apiece for Holmberg and Mikheyev, plus two assists for Kucherov.

Two Very Different Starts

Tampa Bay is 2-1-0 and has won two straight at home since a 5-1 loss at the Rangers on opening night. The Lightning host Minnesota on Thursday. "What I really like is that our next two have been pretty darn good," Cooper said.

Philadelphia is another story. The Flyers are 0-2-2 after a 7-0 home loss to Pittsburgh, consecutive overtime losses to New Jersey and Carolina, and now this. They have scored two goals or fewer in all four games, which is why the shot totals feel so alarming. Vladar did not hide from it. "Hopefully we're going to turn this thing around because, obviously, this is not us. This is not fun," he said. Philadelphia visits Ottawa on Thursday.

Closing Take

The Flyers right now are a group project where everybody agrees the presentation needs work and nobody has opened the slide deck yet. The pieces look fine on paper. Martone is talking about actions over words, Vladar is taking ownership, and the effort was there in the 19 blocked shots. What is missing is the part where pucks go toward the other net. Tampa Bay, meanwhile, got a milestone for its goalie, a first goal from its new forward and a reminder of what Point looks like when he is winning races. That is a productive Monday.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes and game notes from NHL.com; additional details as reported by the Associated Press.