An underrated little star kept the Lightning away from the edge

Losing two home games to start a playoff series is trouble. The Capitals got away with it in these Stanley Cup Playoffs’ first round, but more than 80 percent of teams that fall into that position go on to lose. So the Lightning, down 0-1 to the Bruins, didn’t quite have their backs to the wall against Boston on Monday, but they were in the wall’s neighborhood.

The Lightning recovered, though, two days after getting run out of their own building by a deep Bruins team that (like them) never runs short of scorers. They notched a 4-2 win in Game 2, and the man most responsible was a 5’10 third-round draft pick who’s made himself into one of the NHL’s better players over the course of a two-year career.

Point has had a quiet emergence. He’s a third-round pick from 2014 who made his debut last season, the only one in the last five that saw the Lightning miss the playoffs. He established himself as a man to watch that year, with 40 points in 68 games.

In 2016-17, his rookie year, Point didn’t score a goal until his 12th NHL game, but he started to make noise as an otherwise lousy Lightning season wound toward its conclusion. Point scored nine goals in Tampa Bay’s last 15 games. He carried his strong play into this season, when he scored three in three games to start the year and never really let up. This year, he finished third on Tampa in scoring with a balanced 66 points, behind Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos. The little winger was one of the best players on the best team in the Eastern Conference. And he’s saved some of his finest work for the playoffs.

Having gotten drubbed in the first game, the Lightning needed someone to drive them to a win in Game 2. Point was that dude.

He had four points, and one of them was on an empty-net goal that I swear was among the most skillful empty-netters you’ll ever see in your life:

Point’s play was picturesque. He had the primary assist on the first goal of the game, a Yanni Gourde wrister that beat Tuukka Rask from 27 feet out on a power play. Point is a right-handed shot and didn’t have an ideal angle to make this specific pass, but he moved downward from the top of the right circle and threaded a cross-ice needle to Gourde, who finished the play:

Tampa Bay’s second goal came from Tyler Johnson on a fast break. The play started with playoff magician Ondrej Palat corralling the puck in his own end, turning, and bouncing an area pass off the boards ahead of Point. The thing about Point is that he’s — ahem — lightning-fast, and he won a race to the puck before cutting back and putting it on Johnson’s tape for a primo scoring chance:

The third goal, the last one before Point’s effortful empty-netter, came off Palat’s stick. Boston’s star winger and alleged serial face-licker Brad Marchand lost the puck at his own blue line. Point collected it, shielded it with his butt, and gave it to Palat in time for the Czech to go top-cheddar glove-side on Rask.

The 21-year-old has real goal-scoring ability and put 32 pucks in the net this year, just about even with his 34 assists. But dating back to his junior career with the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors, Point’s always been a playmaker first. He puts up huge assist totals year after year, and he can use his speed to back off defenders and make space for his teammates.

If they do, Stamkos, Kucherov, defenseman Viktor Hedman, and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy will be the biggest reasons why. Point won’t be the first guy to get the Cup from captain Stamkos and skate it around the ice in whichever NHL arena. But every winning superstar needs supporting cast-mates who can step into the limelight in a pinch. Point has shown he can do that all year, but he drove it home with authority on Monday.