Zemgus Girgensons, Yanni Gourde and Pontus Holmberg haven\u2019t been given a nickname by their teammates yet as NHL forward trios sometimes see following extended time playing together, but if the physical Tampa Bay Lightning trio keep up their recent production, it\u2019s likely only a matter of time.<\/p>\n
The line has provided snarl and scoring for the Lightning this season while being one of the team\u2019s most consistent forward combinations since its regular season debut in October.<\/p>\n
As head coach Jon Cooper and the Lightning have reworked lines in search of the perfect 2025-26 lineup, one combination has held steady, particularly over the past two months\u2014No. 28 on the left wing, No. 37 in the middle and No. 29 on the right side.<\/p>\n
Their chemistry keeps them together, as does their pushback.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re a little bit of a pain to play against,\u201d Cooper said Thursday. \u201cI think they relish that role they have. They just check a lot of boxes. They can skate, they can lean on you, they can puck possess, they can shift the momentum of a game. And more often than not, they’re winning their shifts. So, when you get a line that’s winning their shifts, it’s pretty hard to break them up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The line is on its best offensive stretch of the season heading into Friday\u2019s matchup with the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center, one in which the Lightning (29-13-3 this season) can set a new franchise record with a 12th consecutive win.<\/p>\n
A natural fit<\/p>\n
Girgensons and Gourde were the forwards who combined on the 2-on-1 rush that set up JJ Moser\u2019s 1-0 goal in the third period of Tuesday\u2019s 2-1 shootout win in Pittsburgh. Girgensons now holds a four-game point streak\u2014the longest of his 12-year NHL career\u2014with a goal and four points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zemgus Girgensons, Yanni Gourde and Pontus Holmberg haven\u2019t been given a nickname by their teammates yet as NHL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-120627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}