The Lightning’s Conor Sheary finds his way out of a goal drought

TAMPA — When Lightning forward Conor Sheary scored his first goal in 36 games last Thursday against Calgary, he pumped both of his fists high in the air and looked to the sky, finally able to remove the monkey that had been hanging off his back since early November.

Sheary was brought in this past offseason to provide scoring depth on a team that had lost a lot over the past several years. He hadn’t scored fewer than 14 goals in any of his previous full seasons and the three-year, $2 million (average annual value) contract the Lightning gave Sheary showed their confidence in him.

But when the 28-year-old’s career-long goal drought persisted, his confidence waned. He tried to concentrate on doing other things that made him a strong two-way player, but found himself overthinking when the puck was on his stick.

“I think you just want so badly not to mess up more than you want to (score),” Sheary said. “You want to score goals. But when you get plays at the blue line, maybe you dump it in instead of trying to make a play or things like that. With the reads throughout the game, you want to be a little bit more offensive-minded, but when you’re struggling, it’s hard to be able to think that way. Hopefully I’ve kind of found that again.”

Sheary followed up last Thursday’s two-point effort — he also assisted on Mikey Eyssimont’s third-period goal — with another goal in the Lightning’s 7-0 thumping of the Flyers on Saturday.

“I think it’s amazing what just one goal can do or one good bounce,” he said. “It’s definitely a real thing, that confidence. It just kind of clicks and now those little things that I was thinking about so much before come a little bit easier and a little bit more natural. And then you find yourself getting opportunities, more scoring chances, more opportunities to make plays up the rush where maybe you didn’t feel that before. So it’s definitely a big step for me.”

In the scoring play against Calgary, Sheary was the first forward up on a rush. After Victor Hedman’s shot was stopped, the Lightning kept the puck in the offensive zone, Nick Paul taking it off the wall and toward the net. As Paul drew three Flames skaters toward him, Sheary came out of the left corner toward the post and had an open tip-in when Paul found him with a back-hand across the front of the net.

On Saturday, the puck was knocked high into the air above the right circle in the offensive zone. Sheary corralled it and skated to open space in the high slot before shooting a wrister that deflected off Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson and in to give Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead just 9:10 into the game.

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“Confidence, it’s a crazy thing,” said Lightning assistant coach Jeff Halpern. “And you can’t just say, ‘OK, you’re going to go out there tomorrow and put everything behind you.’ You need something to happen. So whether it’s a goal or a point or a ... good play, sometimes it’s just a thing as little as that that can turn the tide for you.”

It has been a slow adjustment for Sheary, who has struggled to find his role in the Lightning lineup — he’s started on all four lines at various points this season — and a blocked shot to his left hand in mid-November sidelined him for more than a month.

But now he seemingly has found chemistry with Paul and Eyssimont. They were the Lightning’s best line against Calgary, scoring two of Tampa Bay’s three goals in the loss. And they played well as a unit against the Flyers. Eyssimont’s speed and forechecking prowess fit Sheary’s game well, and Paul knows how to push the puck toward the net and find his linemates, as he did on Sheary’s Calgary goal.

Right around this time last season, Sheary was going through a similar skid, scoring just one goal over a 34-game stretch with the Capitals. In mid March of 2023, he broke out with three goals in four games, ending the regular season with six points in 11 games playing at a plus-7.

He hopes the past two games can jump-start a strong finish. The Lightning could certainly use it.

“There’s only a limited window here left,” Sheary said. “We’ve got a playoff push coming. It seems like there’s probably four or five teams that are in the race and we need everyone playing well. And I think secondary offense is a big, big part of it this time of year and in the playoffs. If I can continue to provide that aspect of the game, I think that’ll really help us.”

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