Burns: Three Things we learned from another win over Philly

The Tampa Bay Lightning have had Philadelphia's number for some time now.
Their dominance over the Flyers extended into Tuesday night's contest at AMALIE Arena.
The Lightning blanked Philly 4-0 in their final game before Thanksgiving, Andrei Vasilevskiy making all 34 stops for his first shutout of the season and 27th of his career.

The victory was the ninth in a row for the Bolts over the Flyers, a win streak dating back to January 25, 2018. That's the longest active win streak the Lightning have against any NHL opponent currently.
Everything was working for the Lightning on Tuesday.
Zach Bogosian scored his first goal as a member of the Lightning and first goal overall in the NHL since January 12, 2020 when he was playing for the Buffalo Sabres, the defenseman going 681 days without a goal until netting the game opener against the Flyers, a marker that would hold up as the game-winner.
Corey Perry netted his first goal with Tampa Bay to put the Lightning up 3-0 late in the second period, ending a frustrating beginning to the season for the veteran forward who's used to putting up goals with regularity.
Steven Stamkos had a goal and two assists for a three-point night, the 80th of his career. Only six active NHL players - Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Joe Thornton, Evgeni Malkin, Patrick Kane and Nicklas Backstrom -- have more three-point nights than Stamkos, who also overtook Martin St. Louis and became Tampa Bay's franchise leader for home scoring, now with 493 career points at AMALIE Arena.
And Alex Barre-Boulet scored his second goal in as many games since returning to the lineup to provide the Bolts with the depth scoring they'll need with the news Brayden Point will miss four to six weeks to go along with Nikita Kucherov's continued absence.
"Tonight was a really good game," Stamkos said. "I thought the second period was probably one of our best we've played this year. It really set the tone. Vasy shut the door when he needed to. It was nice to close that one out."
Here's how the Lightning were able to do it.

1. SCOREY PERRY RETURNS
The Lightning knew what kind of player they were getting when they signed Corey Perry to a two-year contract in the offseason.
They'd played against him in each of the last two Stanley Cup Finals. In addition to being a gritty, hard-nosed player not afraid to go to the dirty areas of the ice and do whatever it takes to win, he can score goals. He's scored 50 goals previously in the NHL in Anaheim in 2010-11. He netted three goals for Dallas in the 2020 Stanley Cup Final versus the Lightning. He scored another goal in Game 3 of the 2021 Cup Final against the Bolts while with Montreal.
So, it had to be frustrating then for the 36 year old to come up empty through the first 17 games of the season, particularly as a guy who wants to show his new teammates everything he can bring to the team.
But Perry never let it affect his game or the way he prepared.
"The amazing thing is he wasn't getting frustrated," Stamkos said. "When you're a goal scorer and you're not scoring, if the chances are there, you're somewhat happy. You're still not happy with it not going in, but that's the sign that it's going to come. He's had a ton of scoring chances. We know eventually with the player that has the set of hands that he does around the net they're eventually going to go in."
Against the Flyers, Perry was finally rewarded.
With the Lightning holding on to a 2-0 lead near the end of the second period and looking for more, Stamkos fed a wide-open Perry with a pass at below the goal line on a delayed penalty. With time and space to maneuver, Perry skated to the bottom of the left circle and picked a spot over the glove of Philly goalie Carter Hart bar down to score.
"That was a goal scorer's goal," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said.
On his way back to the bench, Perry took an imaginary monkey off his back and threw it into the crowd.
"It was a tough start," Perry admitted. "Things were rolling in the preseason but that doesn't matter. It's all about what you do in the regular season and continue to do down the road. But yeah, got it off the back."
Perry's goal celebration was a sign the frustration had been building, even if it wasn't apparent from the outside.
"There's obviously a little frustration, but I'm not going to show it," he said. "I'm going to continue to be myself and play and help the other guys. You're not scoring, you're not doing this, it's frustrating. But you just keep coming to the rink with a smile on your face and put in the work and good things are going to happen."
Those good things happened Tuesday. Perry had another couple chances he nearly scored on later in the game, his line buzzing with confidence throughout. Hopefully getting one to go in will open the floodgates for a guy who will be needed to fill in offensively for a depleted Lightning lineup.

2. SECOND PERIOD TAKEOVER
The Lightning didn't get off to the start they wanted Tuesday night in Philly.
Their game had no flow. They iced the puck several times. Stretch passes through the neutral zone weren't connecting. The Flyers had the majority of the puck in the opening period, but fortunately the Lightning were defending well enough they didn't give up too many prime scoring chances.
"We just didn't execute," Cooper said. "We were playing a game that just wasn't suited to us. But in saying that, we didn't really give them anything. They had a puck a lot in the first, but I think we only had them for two scoring chances. So we kind of liked that part. But we weren't commanding the puck. We were trying to take the easy route and it wasn't working for us."
Despite the uneven play in the first period, the Lightning still led 1-0 after 20 minutes.
In the second period, they took complete control of the game and grounded the Flyers into submission.
Stamkos got the Lightning started with his goal off a scramble at 6:43 of the middle frame to build a 2-0 lead. Perry's goal at 16:17 of the second made it 3-0 Lightning.
Despite giving up multi-goal leads in each of the previous two games in the third period, it never felt like the Lightning were in any danger of that happening again because of how thoroughly they dominated the Flyers in the second.
"We just talked about making the right plays and we did that," Stamkos said. "We saw how much O-zone pressure we were able to cause because of that. That set the tone for the rest of the game. We didn't really give up any odd-mans in the second either. If we can put a period like that and watch it and learn from it, continue to do that, we'll be in good shape."
Cooper said his team was more connected through all three zones in the second period, which led to them taking control of the game after an uneven start.
"A big part of it was we were trying to play a long game that wasn't there," Cooper said of the first period. "Once we stayed connected through the zones, we started executing."

3. MAKING A STATEMENT IN THE MIDST OF ADVERSITY
The Lightning learned earlier Tuesday they would be without their top line center Brayden Point for an expected four to six weeks as he recovers from an upper-body injury sustained when he slid on the ice and slammed into the end wall in Saturday's loss to New Jersey.
Tampa Bay is already without one superstar forward for an extended time. Nikita Kucherov was hurt in the third game of the season and isn't expected to return until late December/early January. That's also the same time when Point will likely be able to play again according to the timetable the team announced Tuesday afternoon.
Losing two of your leading scorers early in the season is an extremely difficult setback for the Lightning to overcome. Where will the scoring come from? How will the power play click with two of the best players on the unit out?
And most importantly, would the long-term absences of Point and Kucherov affect the Lightning's playoff hopes?
For one night at least, the Bolts shrugged off the setback and put together one of their better performances of the season.
And they made a statement to the rest of the league that no matter what gets thrown at them, they still have the drive and the experience and the perseverance to overcome.
"We've dealt with this kind of stuff before, so our depth has always been key to our success," Stamkos said. "A lot of people have been talking about the guys that left, but we've got some really good players that came in, including the young guys that have really stepped up with Raddy and Bo and Ross there that line. It's been a work in progress, but I think we're seeing the depth come to play right now obviously with some of the big-name injuries that we have on both sides of the puck."
On Tuesday, the Lightning got scoring from expected contributors like Stamkos. And they got goals from unlikely places like Bogosian, Perry and Barre-Boulet, who has tallied in back-to-back games.
The Lightning will need to draw on that depth over this next month they're without two of not only their best players, but two of the top players overall in the NHL.
"Those are big players coming out of our lineup, and I thought guys have been stepping up and doing the little things and continuing to push," Perry said. "You're not going to put somebody in there to fill their spot. They're an elite talent. But if everybody does it collectively, it's a good time."
The Lightning had a good time against the Flyers on Tuesday despite playing without Point and Kucherov. Let's hope they continue to do so while the two superstars mend.