The Lightning entered this road trip with something to prove.

Prove that you can win on the road. Tampa has not lost a game at home to begin the season but their struggles on the road had been adament. So far on this four game road trip they have flipped that script earning three victories in their first three games.

Their most recent victory was a domination of the Buffalo Sabres. Tampa took the contest by a score of 8-3 where many Bolts got to stuff the stat sheet.

Nikita Kucherov recorded a hat trick, John Carlson had 5 points, Guentzel with 4, Hagel has 2 goals and an assist, and Sam O'Reilly got his first NHL point on a secondary assist on Yanni Gourde's goal.

Jon Cooper on O'Reilly's role via Benjamin Pierce:

We do not have too many right sticks out of there, and he has been good in there. O'Reilly played in that spot for us the last two training camps and he did extremely well. So I have no problem with that.

He can win faceoffs, he did that tonight. He did everything, and it was great. You only get one chance to play in your first game, and he gets a point in it. It was awesome for him and he has got a ton of people here. He did a great job.

Jon Cooper

Tampa started the game jumping out to a 4-0 lead. Tampa was dominating Buffalo from the offset. They looked like the better team, played faster, cashed in on a power play opportunity, and Andrei Vasilevskiy was turning shots away left and right. But then the momentum shifted a little bit as Tampa allowed 3 unanswered goals.

That was when Tampa's stars stepped in to close the door. Nikita Kucherov would score Tampa's next three goals in route to a hat trick while Brandon Hagel put the icing on the cake late in the third period.

Tampa's win was the definition of a team win with over half of the players that touched the ice recording a point.

It was also a display of elite shot making as the Bolts scored 8 goals on 22 shots, a mark that is quite impressive.

Beyond that Tampa continued to improve upon the little things. They scored 2 power play goals on 4 chances, they won the face off battle, and they blocked 10 shots.

Tampa's tenacity has continued to improve, especially on the road, and that is how they have found their way into the win column on the road.

Tampa now sits at 12-4-2 with an 8-0 record at home and a 4-4-2 record on the road. Tampa will get a chance to end their road trip with a winning record tonight as they take on the struggling Columbus Blue Jackets.