If you’ve listened to rock music, you’ve probably heard the song “The Bug” by Dire Straits. The well-known line from this tune goes, “Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.” Earlier in their five-game road trip, there were times when the Tampa Bay Lightning were the windshield. Against the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday night, the Lightning played the role of the bug.
Coming off a grueling 3-2 win in Vegas the night before, the Lightning entered Saturday’s game at Gila River Arena banged up for the first time this season. The Bolts announced that defenseman Victor Hedman would be re-evaluated in a week due to an upper-body injury. He left the Vegas game following a hit by Ryan Reaves and did not return. They also declared Ondrej Palat day-to-day due to a lower-body injury, so the Bolts were without both Hedman and Palat against the Coyotes. While not having them around certainly hurt, it’s tough to say whether or not they would have made much of a difference tonight.
Arizona (5-5-0) dominated this contest from beginning to end, picking up goals from six different players in a 7-1 blowout over Tampa Bay (7-2-1). The Lightning saw both their three-game winning streak and their seven-game point streak (6-0-1) come to an end. Tampa Bay ended their season-long five-game road trip with a 3-1-1 record, earning seven out of 10 points. The Coyotes’ extended their winning streak to three games, scoring at least four goals in all of those tilts after being the lowest-scoring team in the NHL in their first seven contests.
Tampa Bay rarely tested Arizona goalie Antti Raanta this evening, as the Coyotes consistently out-worked them. The Bolts continuously found themselves out of position and appeared a step slow the entire night. While the Lightning looked fatigued due to it being the final game of the trip and the second half of a back-to-back, they had no answer for what Arizona kept throwing their way. Raanta finished with 29 saves on 30 shots. Louis Domingue, making his first start in Arizona since being waived by the Coyotes a year ago, allowed seven goals on 31 shots.
An early goal for the Coyotes eventually snowballed into a three-goal lead.
Despite being out-shot 13-9 in the first 20 minutes, Arizona proved to be the superior team, a theme that would prevail throughout the night. Tampa Bay’s porous play in their own zone cost them early and often. Arizona went ahead at 6:55 when a long shot from the point by Jordan Oesterle beat a screened Domingue. The Bolts challenged for goalie interference as Brendan Perlini was fighting for position along with Domingue. However, the officials upheld the call on the ice and the goal stood.
Tampa Bay endured a scary moment involving Brayden Point. After Point fell to the ice along the boards, Arizona’s Michael Grabner was fighting for the puck when the boot of his skate caught Point in the face. Fortunately, it wasn’t the blade, otherwise it could have been ugly. Moments later, a faceoff win by Arizona in Tampa Bay’s zone led to Clayton Keller taking control of the puck. His shot bounced off the leg of Cedric Paquette and past Domingue for a 2-0 lead on his fifth of the season.
The Coyotes increased that advantage to 3-0 when Derek Stepan capped off a 3-on-2 rush by zipping a perfect shot to the top of the net past Domingue for his first of the season at 12:57.
A bad first period bled over into the second as the Coyotes bolstered their lead.
Vinnie Hinostroza extended the Coyotes’ lead to 4-0 at 8:27 when he took a pass from Alex Goligoski on the rush and entered the Lightning’s zone. With Tampa Bay’s defenders backing off and giving him plenty of room, Hinostroza skated into the slot and rifled one past Domingue for his third of the year. Later in the period, the Lightning received a power play chance, but like everything in this game, nothing went right. In fact, it went so poorly that Arizona notched a shorthanded goal to make it 5-0. Brad Richardson and Michael Grabner skated down the ice on a 2-on-1 following a Bolts turnover. Richardson feathered a beautiful pass to Grabner, who didn’t get all of the puck on his shot. However, it knuckled into the air just enough, beating Domingue for the goal.
Arizona only surrendered a couple of quality chances in this period, as Nikita Kucherov missed the net and Mathieu Joseph hit the side of the net with Raanta out of position. Tampa Bay barely tested the Coyotes with any quality chances, while Arizona continued to outwork the Lightning, win more puck battles, and create quality chances, especially off the rush. The Lightning found themselves unable to get any sort of offensive flow going, as their passes and puck movement were not crisp at all.
Although the Lightning broke the shutout bid, Arizona added to their lead.
Grabner scored his second shorthanded goal of the night on another odd-man rush following a Kucherov turnover, making it 6-0 for the Coyotes. The Lightning finally ended Raanta’s shutout bid on a power play, scoring one of the weirdest goals you’ll see. Tyler Johnson’s shot from the boards bounced off Adam Erne and popped straight up into the air towards the net, dropping in behind Raanta for the goal before the Arizona goalie knew what had happened. The goal would be credited to Erne, but Arizona would tack on their final goal when an unsuccessful 2-on-1 eventually led to Richard Panik taking a shot that bounced in off a Lightning player’s stick.
The Lightning will attempt to bounce back on Tuesday night when they welcome the New Jersey Devils to Amalie Arena at 7:30 pm.
Game Notes
-Slater Koekkoek played in his first game of the season, taking Hedman’s place in the lineup.
-Adam Erne suited up for the first time since October 16th against Carolina due to Palat’s injury.
-Grabner’s two goals give him 17 career shorthanded tallies in his career.
-The loss was Domingue’s first of the season and just his fourth since the joining the Lightning last season.
-Tampa Bay finished 1-for-5 on the power play, while Arizona ended the night 0-for-4.
-The Lightning had won nine of its previous 12 games in Arizona before tonight’s contest.
Our Three Stars of the Game
1st Star: Michael Grabner – Two shorthanded goals
2nd Star: Vinnie Hinostroza – One goal and one assist
3rd Star: Clayton Keller – One goal
