The Tampa Bay Lightning were looking to prove to the National Hockey League that, despite being all but out of the playoff race, they still mean business. Unfortunately, their effort on Thursday night against the star studded Pittsburgh Penguins did anything but. The Bolts were pushed around by the Penguins, confounded by the Penguins’ speed, and outworked by the Penguins at every turn. Simply put – an effort like the one put forth on Thursday evening is never going to be enough to get the job done against of the Eastern Conference’s elite squads.

After a solid first couple of shifts, the wheels fell right off for the Lightning. Just over four minutes into the contest, Jussi Jokinen converted his first of the night on what can only be described as one of the most awkward two-on-ones executed this year. After fumbling the puck slowly through the Lightning zone, the Penguins somehow managed to get it by Ben Bishop. It was hardly a thing of beauty but, as they say in golf, there’re no pictures on the scorecard.

Less than two minutes later, Pascal Dupuis made it 2-0 on a Penguins power play as he beat a sluggish Eric Brewer to a juicy rebound from Ben Bishop and made no mistake notching the tally. At 2-0 roughly six minutes into the hockey game, Lightning fans at the Tampa Bay Times Forum were visibly deflated. Despite what looked to be a promising start to the game, a couple of bad breaks put the Lightning in the hole. Given where the Lightning sit in the standings and where the Penguins sit in the standings, confidence wasn’t running high within Bolts Nation.

Teddy Purcell would cut the deficit to one with only four minutes left in the frame as he took a beautiful feed from Steven Stamkos and got the puck past Tomas Vokoun. The power play goal, one of many on the night, gave the Lightning faithful a sense of false hope moving into the second period. That hope was short-lived, however, as Chris Kunitz tipped home a Jarome Iginla shot to restore the Penguins’ two goal cushion only moments into the middle frame.

The Lightning would again battle back, this time with Brett Connolly leading the charge. Once again on the power play, Richard Panik found Brett Connolly in the slot with a great pass and Connolly fired home a big league shot. For Connolly, the goal marks his first of the year since being called up from the Syracuse Crunch and first in over 50 games dating back to 2011-12. Hopefully that goal lifts some weight off his shoulders moving forward.

From there it was all downhill for the Lightning. Things got chippy, the Penguins scored three goals in the third period, and the referees seemingly lost control of the game. There was a lot of trash talking, a lot of roughing, and a number of misconducts. To be blunt – the Lightning lost their cool. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t effective, and it did nothing to further their cause on the scoreboard.

Teddy Purcell notched his second of night with only eighteen seconds left in the game, but it was not nearly enough to get by the Penguins. As mentioned pre-game, when the Penguins are on their game, they’re pretty close to unbeatable. Say what you want about officiating or bad breaks, but the reality is that the Lightning were beaten by a better team on Thursday night. The Penguins laid everything out on the line and did all of the little things needed to grab two points. With only a handful of games left in their season, the Lightning’s candle of hope has dimmed. Hopefully the Syracuse Crunch can go on a long playoff run, because the guys here in Tampa won’t be making it to the dance.

As always, thanks for reading.

Join the Discussion: » 17 Comments » Post New Comment

» Brown, Paul Combine for Canada's Golden Goal at World Championship

» Senators to Select 10th Overall; What Should They Do with the Pick?

» Finding the Right Centerpiece

» Senators Team Awards Ballot

» Melnyk Speaks