After so much talk about needing to have a strong defensive performance against the Ottawa Senators on Friday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning came out and laid a defensive egg. Despite that - in what turned out to be a game full of defensive gaffes, miscues and missed assignments, the Lightning ended up with two points at the end of sixty minutes. It wasn’t a pretty performance, but it was enough to keep the Lightning at the top of the Southeast Division.
Just over a minute into the game, with the Bolts on their first of many powerplay chances, Matt Carle jumped into the slot and converted his first of the season to give the Lightning an early one goal lead. Marc-Andre Bergeron and Cory Conacher were credited with assists on the play; the assist was Conacher’s first of two points on the night that would see him overtake Blues’ forward Tarasenko as the NHL’s rookie scoring leader. To all the doubters – he’s the real deal and an incredibly special player.
The Senators’ parade to the penalty box in the first period didn’t end up doing the Lightning any favors. In fact, after the Carle goal, the best scoring chance of the period came off the stick of Peter Regin on a shorthanded breakaway. Anders Lindback managed to steer the puck aside, but the fact remains that the Lightning powerplay did not convert when it had a chance to put the Senators away early. It did the opposite; it gave the Senators chances to get right back in the game.
While the Lightning dominated the shot clock in the first period, they only managed to crawl out of the frame with a one goal lead. Ultimately, moving forward, the team needs to get better at converting on powerplay chances. As said, the Bolts had a chance to knock the Senators out of this one real early. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
The Senators quick transition game paid off early in the second period when Erik Condra took advantage of a sloppy Lightning change to score his first of the season and tie the game. Out wide, he was left alone to rip a shot past Lindback.
Like last season and the start of this season, the Lightning struggled right through the second period. After a bounty of penalty calls, the Jason Spezza and Erik Karlsson scored goals within 16 seconds of each other to give the Senators a 3-1 lead. At that point, it really seemed as though the Senators were going to run away with things. Lindback seemed unsettled, the Lightning forwards looked defeated and the building was dead.
Of course, it’s never smart to count this Lightning group out with the offensive firepower it boasts. Steven Stamkos scored his second of the season from Sami Salo and Marty St. Louis to pull the Lightning within one. After Kyle Turris restored the two goal Senators lead, Victor Hedman scored his first of the season with a blast from the point to bring the Tampa Bay Times Forum back to life. Moving forward, the Lightning are going to need more of that out of Hedman. Along with Salo, he played a generally solid game at both ends of the ice culminating with the goal that would ultimately start the comeback.
As the third period moved along, it became abundantly clear that the Senators were tired. Playing on the second night of a back-to-back set in Florida, the Senators just didn’t have enough in the tank to defend against the well-rested Lightning. Ryan Malone scored two goals, his second and third of the season, and Tommy Pyatt potted an empty netter to seal the Lightning’s 6-4 victory.
In what can only be described as a frustrating victory, the Lightning now have a lot to improve on if they want to grab two points from the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday. Despite incredibly strong performances from Steven Stamkos (1G, 2A), Cory Conacher (2A) and Sami Salo (2A, +5), everyone is going to need to be better as the team moves through this home stand. At the end of the day, the team is probably happy to have the two points in the bank after this one, but there’s certainly a ton of room for improvement.
As always, thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow night with a preview of Sunday’s game against the Flyers.
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