A Louis Louis Louis: Martin St. Louis celebrates one of two goals on a memorable night.
The Canadian Press

Truth be told, Martin St. Louis is one of my favorite players. The undrafted free agent has gone onto a storybook career since signing with the Lightning in 2000. Recently, he became the 286th NHLer to reach 1,000 career games and was honored last night with a silver stick and other fun stuff. Prior to a game the former Hart winner put his stamp on with two goals and an assist in the Bolts’ 5-0 rout of the Rangers, he was honored during pregame with even ’04 Conn Smythe winner Brad Richards joining his former teammate for a special presentation that also included injured star Steven Stamkos walking out on the ice.

Maybe that should’ve been indicative of what was to come. Being that I worked the night shift, I guess you could say “I chose wisely,” to quote Indiana Jones. Sometimes, these games happen when you’re on the road. At least the Rangers won the first two before falling on their faces. It just wasn’t their night. One of the game’s class acts celebrated his big night by putting on a show in front of the home crowd. Even minus Stamkos, there was St. Louis- the lone Cup holdover lighting up our team. That included Henrik Lundqvist, who was pulled after allowing four goals in two period. He allowed two goals in 58 seconds with rookie Nikita Kucherov beating him on his first shift. St. Louis followed by going high glove.

“It’s pretty emotional,” St. Louis said. “The whole presentation. See my kids, my wife, my parents. When they started the (tribute) video, I couldn’t watch. I kind of lost it.

“It was a special night, and to be able to win the game and contribute. I’ll remember tonight for sure.”

From the sound of it, the Rangers were never in it. Though they did get one chance when they had a 5-on-3 for over a minute. But Ben Bishop was strong making 37 saves to pitch the shutout. How bad was it? They even let Nate Thompson push a puck forward and come in shorthanded forcing Lundqvist to make a save.

“We turned the puck over a couple of times in the neutral zone and they made us pay,” Alain Vigneault said while critiquing his team’s play for basically watching St. Louis dominate. “We were unable to make them pay, especially in the first period when we had quality chances.”

By that point, they trailed by three following a highlight reel St. Louis breakaway goal in which he fired a laser top shelf for career goal number 350. His combination of wheels, hands and hockey sense are amazing. At age 38, the future Hall Of Famer has shown no signs of slowing down.

“Guys like that rise to the occasion, and sure enough, he goes out there and scores two goals after that ceremony.” Bishop added after improving to 4-0 in his career against the Rangers posting his second shutout. His best stop came on Anton Stralman late in the first, reaching up with his outstretched glove to rob him. For all the talk about Vigneault’s offensive system, our team’s now been shutout five times. Three were uncompetitive.

Adding insult to injury, Teddy Purcell scored the first of a pair when he also went upstairs on Lundqvist. Prior to the goal, there was a lot of commotion on Twitter. Apparently, Brad Richards was hauled down at the point which led to the breakaway goal. I caught the highlights. They got hosed. But Lundqvist still should’ve stopped it. When he’s really off, the whole top of the net is exposed. It was one of those games. He allowed four goals on 22 shots before Cam Talbot relieved him for the third.

With the game all but over, the only remaining question was whether St. Louis would get the hat trick. Purcell came in on an odd-man rush and tried to pass it across to St. Louis. But the puck caromed off Mike Del Zotto right back to Purcell, who beat Talbot for his second of the game with 1:01 remaining- ending his shutout streak at over 165 minutes. It summed up a lost night.

The blowout defeat halted their six-game road win streak, leaving them one shy of a franchise best in 1935 and 1978. Here’s the deal. Win tomorrow at Florida and that’s 3-1 headed into the Black Friday showdown in Beantown. We’ll see how they respond.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Teddy Purcell, TB (2 goals-6, 7, assist, +3 in 14:20)

2nd Star-Ben Bishop, TB (37-save shutout)

1st Star-Martin St. Louis, TB (2 goals-9, 10, assist, 4 SOG, +3 in 18:52)