WASHINGTON, D.C. – After Steven Stamkos’ power play snipe in Thursday’s first period, he didn’t drop to his knee for an emphatic fist-pump celebration.

The captain pointed to center Brayden Point, who made the whole play happen.

“Good f—— pass!” Stamkos yelled.







There were many reasons the Lightning somehow pulled off a stunning 4-2 victory over the Capitals to even the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stole this one with a second straight, spectacular 36-save performance. He bailed out a Tampa Bay team that got completely dominated for most of the night.

“When you don’t have your ‘A’ game, you need your goalie to have his,” coach Jon Cooper said. “And he sure did.”

But in a series where the Lightning have gotten very little 5-on-5, special teams have carried them. The penalty kill went 4-for-4, including killing three straight in the first period (the images of Ryan Callahan laying out to block an Alex Ovechkin shot, and a stickless Tyler Johnson shadowing the Capitals star, will be in Lightning lore if they win the Cup). And the power play, thanks to a crafty switch late in the series against Boston, has been unstoppable, going 6-for-14 in the first four games of this one. Tampa Bay has a power play goal in nine straight.

Point was put in the slot on Tampa’s first power play unit in Game 5 against Boston, it led to the series-clinching goal. And the tweak may help lift the Lightning into the Stanley Cup final.

Tampa Bay’s power play was stagnant against the Bruins, so Point replaced Alex Killorn in that spot to provide a different look.

“He’s always been an option for us there,” Cooper said. “We thought he’d just give us another threat in hopes he can expose maybe Washington. The other thing, too, is he gets the puck in the zone. So he’s really good at that. As a coach, you try to put players in position to have success and it’s really helped out.”

Why is Point a difference-maker on the top unit? Stamkos’ goal Thursday was a perfect illustration. With him positioned in the slot between Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, Point draws defenders away from the two elite scorers.

The Capitals have to pay Point attention as he’s a right shot, with any pass from Kucherov or J.T. Miller, who was down low, resulting in a one-timer. Hall of Famer Phil Esposito pointed out that the Capitals do the same thing, putting right-shot T.J. Oshie in the middle, which creates space for Alex Ovechkin’s all-world one-timer from the circle.

“That’s what we did, too, the power play with the Bruins,” Esposito told The Athletic. “It’s a no-brainer. It was always on Johnny Bucyk’s side, because I was a lefty.”

On Stamkos’ goal, Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly converged hard on Point, leaving Stamkos wide open in his “office,” the left circle. Point tries to make a quick pass to Stamkos, but his first try goes off Smith-Pelly’s skate. Point’s second effort put the puck on a tee for Stamkos, who scored his fourth power play goal in as many games and a franchise record 11th overall.

“Sometimes, when you have ‘Kuch’ and ‘Stammer’ taking one-timers, that opens you up a little bit,” Point said. “And on that play, that’s what happened. Miller found me there, the first pass I tried hit the guy’s skate. Lucky enough it bounced back to me.”

The unit’s tic-tac-toe passing put the puck on four different players’ sticks in a three-second span. That’s where Point’s skill set fits in well with this group, in this role.

“His playmaking ability is so good,” said Fox Sports Sun analyst Brian Engblom, a two-time Stanley Cup-winning defenseman. “(Killorn) is more deliberate, a bigger body, a different kind of player. Point really made that play.

“Everyone was converging on him and it’s just that quickness, that instant ability to make it happen.”

Moving Killorn to the second unit, fittingly, helped lead to the game-winner Thursday. Just as the Lightning’s power play expired midway through the third period, rookie Mikhail Sergachev made a great play to keep the puck in the zone, throwing it behind the net.

Ondrej Palat fooled everyone — including Killorn — by dropping a no-look, behind-the-back pass in front. Killorn pounced, putting the puck on his backhand and slipping it through goalie Braden Holtby.

“We weren’t on the power play anymore, but we kind of still had that power play set up,” Killorn said. “I put it to my backhand because I saw (Capitals defenseman John) Carlson come with his stick. I tried to put anything on it.”

Point scored, too, delivering a much-needed response goal 70 seconds after the Capitals took a 1-0 lead four minutes in. It was his seventh of the playoffs. One came on a power play in a Game 2 loss, with Point putting in a rebound from his spot in the middle. On Stamkos’ power play goal in that same game, you can see how much space the captain has to work with as Point skates down from the blueline.



On the two power play goals in Tuesday’s 4-2 Game 3 win, Kucherov and Stamkos had plenty of time for their one-timers.

Point said that during playoffs, it’s hard to score goals 5-on-5, so “when you get a power play, you’ve got to make it count.”

And Point has been making it happen.

“He’s an outstanding player — we’ve seen it all year,” Stamkos said. “There might be some people who get tons of national attention with the games that people are watching and seeing how good he is, but in our room, he’s been arguably one of our best players all season long and then through the playoffs. I’m not surprised at all.”