Sunday night the Tampa Bay Lightning won a game they should have lost in Pittsburgh. That was the last game of the first half of the 82 game regular season. Strong playoff contending teams win games like the one the Bolts won against the Penguins. Last night, they lost a game to the Boston Bruins that they absolutely deserved to lose. Playoff pretenders lose the sort of game like this. Perhaps it started with Brayden Point missing a team meeting that resulted in him being scratched for this game. Regardless, the team playing a divisional foe mailed it in. Lackluster play led to a lackluster loss for the Lightning.
If there was a time that the Bruins were ripe for a beatdown, it was last night. They have struggled recently having lost seven of their last 10 games. The home team was also going to play without their top defenseman as Charlie McAvoy is on the injured reserve list. Seemed as if the stars were aligning for the Lightning.
Then they took the ice. Point is an elite player in this league and any team losing an elite player is going to struggle a bit. The Bolts went beyond struggling, they looked at times downright lost. Not even five minutes in, the Lightning were in the Bruins zone when Victor Hedman fanned on a shot. Completely missed the puck and this created a 2 on 1 odd man rush for Boston. Matt Poitras slipped a beauty of a pass to Trent Frederic who sniped the puck past Andrei Vasilevskiy. Just like that, the Bruins were up 1-0.
Less than five minutes later, they struck again. Parker Wotherspoon slapped a shot past Vasilevskiy for his first NHL goal. Give the kid credit, he deserved the goal but the defensive play by the Lightning was suspect. They allowed an easy entrance into their zone and a cross ice pass that led to the goal. No Lightning player contended the pass let alpine the shot. It appeared then that the Tampa players were going through the motions. Uninspired play leading to the overall lackluster loss.
Is There Any Fight in Them?
Keep in mind the Lightning and Bruins are battling for third place in the Atlantic Division. Last Thursday, the Bruins played the Lightning in Tampa and were handed a 4-1 defeat by the Bolts. This was to be a carryover from that game. The Bruins came ready but the Lightning did not. A little over a minute in the second period, Brad Marchand snapped a shot past Vasilevskiy to make it 3 – 0.
Less than five minutes later the Bruins scored another goal to give them an insurmountable four goal lead. David Pasternak took a pass from Pavel Zacha and lit the lamp. Funny thing is the Lightning had four players in the zone but all four were to the left of Vasilevskiy. Pasternak was all alone to the right of the Tampa goalie.
The visitors did have a little bit of fight in them. Connor Geekie tipped in a Hedman shot to put the Lightning on the board. Just as the second period was coming to an end, Hedman scored as well to make it 4 – 2 after two periods.
Winning Ugly or Lackluster Loss?
Down two goals as the final period began. The Lightning, having scored the last two goals in the game, should have led to a fighter’s chance. To their credit they peppered Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman with shot after shot. They ended with 45 shots on goal but Swayman stood tall. He made several decent saves to keep the Lightning at bay.
Coach Jon Cooper pulled Vasilevskiy with about four minutes left in the game. Then Boston committed a penalty giving the Lightning a 6-4 man advantage. All they needed was two goals. Ironically, two goals were scored but it was Boston scoring two short handed empty net goals.
On the bright side, the Lightning are coming home for the next two games. Some Bolts fans were directing some anger towards Cooper for sitting Point in such a big game. To them I say, direct your anger towards Point. He missed a team meeting. If you truly fanatically follow this team, you’ll know Cooper has this rule. We’ve seen him healthy scratch any player for missing a mandatory team meeting. Point let his teammates down with his action. Cooper did the right thing because in order to be a legitimate Cup contender, a team must have discipline. Don’t blame him for attempting to instill some discipline. Otherwise, expect these types of lackluster losses.
Three Stars
- Jeremy Swayman – 43 saves on 45 shots
- Pavel Zacha – 1 goal and 2 assists
- David Pastrnak – 1 goal and 2 assists
What’s Next
Thursday night the Lightning host the Anaheim Ducks. Puck drops at 7:00 pm
