The Lightning have returned from the NHL’s mandated holiday break with one more back-to-back to end the month of December. They’re coming off a 4-0 shutout win against the Florida Panthers on Monday night and are hoping to continue building momentum before starting a jam-packed month of January.

After limping into the holiday break, the Rangers face-planted coming out of it. Peter Laviolette talked about how there was only one direction his team could go at this point, but the 6-2 beatdown the Blueshirts suffered at the hands of the Lightning on Saturday night at Amalie Arena said otherwise.

Despite generating a multitude of high-quality scoring chances, on top of a goal from Artemi Panarin, the Rangers still found themselves down 2-1 after 20 minutes of play. It was in the second period when everything spiraled out of control for the Rangers.