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It was never supposed to be as easy as Tuukka Rask and the Bruins made it look in the first three games of a four-game season series against the Lightning.
For all of their struggles, especially down a stretch run that allowed the Bruins to erase a once double-digit lead for first place in the Eastern Conference, the Lightning have been among the league’s best for a reason. The Bruins finally saw that team on Tuesday, which played out to a 4-0 beatdown of the Black and Gold at Amalie Arena.
Like they did in the prior three meetings, the Bolts came out flying. And much like they did in their prior meetings, the Bruins were able to weather that early storm.
But this was different from previous storms in the sense that the Lightning did not just come at the Bruins for the opening five or eight minutes and then back off their pursuit. They instead took it to the Bruins for what felt like close to the full 20 minutes, and absolutely peppered Rask for 17 shots in the period, compared to just eight by Boston.
Rask ultimately broke on the 21st shot he faced with an ugly goal surrendered to Brayden Point, and a Victor Hedman one-time blast just nine shots later made it 2-0, and made it 30 shots against the Boston ace in just 30:59 of action.
To make their night worse, a microcosm of the night came when Lightning wing Ryan Callahan beat a sluggish Torey Krug to the puck on a would-be icing, and allowed Chris Kunitz to score just 3:28 after the Hedman goal to make it 3-0 through 40 minutes.
And knowing that the Bruins are never quite out of a game -- and with one three-goal comeback already to their name this season -- J.T. Miller helped the Bolts put this game away with a two-on-one snipe on Rask just 2:34 into the third period.
It was largely a night to forget for Rask, who stopped 32 of 36 shots faced in the losing effort and caught some lucky breaks before the walls caved in. But Rask’s so-so night was met with one of the team’s worst across-the-board performances of the season.
For the first time in what’s been a tremendous month-plus run, the B’s luck around the front of the net seemed to evaporate into thin air. This led to the Bruins leaving countless plays on the table, and 15 missed shots by the night’s end, seven of which came from their top line trio of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak.
The defense did not seem to help the Bruins, either, with 33 shots against Rask through the first two periods of play.
Besides their obvious lack of offensive punch and defensive resistance, the Bruins also seemed to seriously lack the ability to match Tampa’s physical play like they did last Thursday. When Tampa set the tone early, the Bruins were unable to match it, or even come close to stopping it. It definitely did not help that the highly effective Tim Schaller-Noel Acciari-Tommy Wingels line was broken up due to injuries to Riley Nash on Saturday and Wingels on Sunday.
The victory also moved the Lightning into a tie with the Bruins for first in the East.
The Bruins will remain in first until at least Thursday, too, by virtue of having one fewer game played than the Bolts. But it sets up for a dynamite finish, to say the least, with the Bruins having games against the Panthers (twice) and Senators, while Tampa Bay finishes against the Sabres and Hurricanes.
Without a win tonight, the Lightning would have essentially needed the Bruins to lose out to still have a shot at first place.
So if the Bruins made a statement with last week’s head-to-head victory, there’s little doubt that the Lightning countered with one of their own on Tuesday. Now, it’ll take a second-round meeting for these teams to truly settle their differences.
The road each team will need to travel to make that possible, however, remains up in the air entering the final five days of the regular season.
This and that
- Do the Bruins miss Riley Nash this much? Ab-so-lutely. Without Nash, the entire bottom-six seems all out of sorts because it breaks up your fourth line, and I can't help but feel as if that was a major reason why the Bruins could never quite match what the Lightning were doing.
- Brandon Carlo is officially done for the season thanks to a fractured ankle, per Bruins general manager Don Sweeney. This is going to be a big loss for the Bruins, particularly on the penalty kill, where Carlo has averaged close to three minutes of time on ice per game this season.
I can't help but feel absolutely awful for the 21-year-old, too, as this is the second year in a row in which he's played almost every regular season game only to see his season cut short before the postseason.
- Feel free to panic about this loss. Just know I'm not joining you. The Bruins are still very much in control of their own destiny.
Here's my latest column on WEEI.com.
Up next
The Bruins will have a Thursday head-to-head with the Panthers. The Bruins straight-up dominated the Panthers in their meeting this past Saturday, by a 5-1 final.
Ty Anderson is the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com, and has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010. He can be heard on the Saturday Skate program on 93.7 WEEI (Boston), and has been part of the Boston Chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
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