Ryan Callahan reacts to his goal at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida on November 23, 2018. Credit: Twitter (@TBLightning)

Most Tampa Bay Lightning fans spent their Thanksgiving holidays reconnecting with families. The struggling Chicago Blackhawks, however, traveled to the Sunshine State after a tumultuous week that saw the team release its legendary coach, Joel Quenneville, after the dirty birds kicked off the season with a record of 9-8-5. That start has Chicago sitting pretty much in the cellar of the Western Conference’s Central Division, and the Bolts entered Friday’s game leading the league in goals scored (82) and goals per game (3.73) following a Thanksgiving Eve, 7-3 trouncing of the Florida Panthers.

There was no sign of day-off tryptophan abuse for the boys in Blue as the Lightning earned a 4-2 win, and completed the season sweep of Chicago, in front of an Amalie Arena crowd heavily dotted with red Blackhawks jerseys.

Nikita Kucherov must’ve skipped the turkey over the holiday, too. The Bolts winger had a hand in the first three goals of the game as the Bolts went up 4-1 on the Blackhawks after 20 minutes of play. Tyler Johnson almost nabbed a hat trick enroute to seeing his line rack up eight of the Lightning’s 11 first period points (Brayden Point and Ryan Callahan each scored goals in addition to the pair from Johnson). Bolts goalie Louis Domingue didn’t have to face much, but he did fight off a couple of breakaways including one that saw Blackhawks center Alexandre Fortin snap his stick after having pretty much all day to decide where to shoot.

The Bolts got outshot 6-7 in the second with Chicago actually getting a late-period rebound past Domingue to cut the lead in half during the period which saw the Lightning fail to convert on its leftover first period power play and a pair of 5-on-4 advantages in the second (a relatively shoddy reality since the Blackhawks are operating one of the most horrendous penalty kills in the league).

To make it exciting, Tampa Bay decided to have its own Thanksgiving hangover by committing back-to-back penalties (a too many men bench minor and then a tripping penalty on Steven Stamkos 110 second later) midway through the frame. Domingue held strong in the ensuing mini-onslaught, and the Blackhawks continued to look hapless as the Bolts failed to tack on an empty netter during the game's final moments.

The Lightning remains atop the Eastern Conference, and its next game is on Sunday, November 25 against the New Jersey Devils. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. at Amalie Arena.

This article appears in Nov 22-29, 2018.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...