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The Tampa Bay Lightning might never win at TD Garden again.
In their second and final trip to Boston (though the teams will meet up two more times, only at Amalie Arena instead), the Lightning could do everything but score on Boston Bruins netminder
Tuukka Rask in a downright insane overtime and shootout, as the Bruins prevailed by a 3-2 final.
But it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
In search of their first win in Boston since Mar. 25, 2010 (10 trips ago), a three-on-three overtime brought Tampa Bay some glorious looks, and a
Matt Bartkowski penalty during the three-on-three put the game on the Bolts’ stick. But when Tampa Bay captain
Steven Stamkos’ stick shattered, and No. 91 threw the butt into the crowd, a 10-minute misconduct was doled out, and took Stamkos out of commission for the rest of the power play (and shootout).
(This is where you honestly begin to wonder if there’s some other forces at play here -- voodoo curses, ancient burial grounds, or plagues -- for head coach
Jon Cooper’s squad.)
“I don’t know how many sticks I’ve broken in that situation this year. Then I’m obviously a little frustrated that it broke in that situation and to see it go over the glass I knew right away that that’s a ten,” Stamkos said after the loss. “It’s kind of just a little frustrating, we had an opportunity there and a couple good looks, [Nikita Kucherov] had a great look and Rask made a big save so obviously we would have liked to score one but, you know obviously tough one to swallow. We’ll take the point.”
In the other room, the Black and Gold, though they played a solid game, knew that they were lucky to survive a brutal second period that saw them outshot by a 16-to-4 figure.
“In the second period there for some reason we started going back with the puck, our D’s were, our forwards were stretching out. So instead of being a five-man unit, we were spread in two parts there, and that really hurt us a lot in the second period,” Boston coach
Claude Julien said after the win. “But we were able to regain our game in the third period and made it an exciting third, and then the rest obviously you know what happened afterwards. But, it was one of those game where you have to play against teams that have had a lot of success, have a lot of confidence in themselves, and tonight we came out there and showed that we had a lot of confidence in our group and played like it.”
It was a middle frame reminiscent of the Ottawa game on Tuesday night -- another middle frame that the Bruins were lucky to escape relatively unscathed behind stellar goaltending from Rask -- but one that can’t continue as the Bruins prepare for a weekend road swing with stops in Pittsburgh and D.C..
“We kind of got loose there in the second,” admitted Julien. “We were spread out and we weren’t tight, and we were in the first period and we came up as a five-man unit. We came back as a five-man unit and the same thing in the third for the most part. So, there’s no doubt when you play Pittsburgh and Washington, those are important aspects, just like they were tonight.”
With the victory, and with the Florida Panthers winning, the Bruins still hold a six-point edge for the East’s second wild card, but are now within two points of the first wild card, currently held by the Washington Capitals (82 points and with one more game played than the B’s.)
They’re also now on a 7-1-1 run since
David Krejci (knee) went down. This is impressive, too, as most 7-1-1 runs involve just Slurpees (cherry flavored forever) and candy.
Random thoughts and notes
- So, uh, how about three-on-three overtime? The Bruins-Lightning provided a brief taste of what the future of NHL regular season overtime could be, and man was it exciting. Chance for chance. Rush for rush. An absolute boatload of open ice and space for creativity. Sign me up. Sign me up for 82 games of it. OK, maybe not 82 straight games of it, but you get where I’m coming from here.
This, without a doubt, is going to become a reality much sooner than later for the NHL, I think. They’re toying with this in the American Hockey League (and maybe that’s why you saw Julien give the nod to a Ryan Spooner-David Pastrnak duo with Bartkowski on the backend), and it’s a mere inevitable for the big leagues. It’s simply too exciting to put on the shelf in favor of the shootout. And it keeps the focus on the team aspect of the game more so than the individual, an obvious plus in every NHLer’s mind.
“Who wouldn’t like three-on-three overtime when you got
David Pastrnak going between the legs?” asked Boston alternate captain
Chris Kelly.
I guess that’s a good point, too.
- Pretty awful night for
Gregory Campbell. First shift of the game? He catches a puck in the face. Leaking blood on the ice and down the tunnel, the veteran fourth-line center returns to action, now sporting a visor, and almost immediately gets boarded up along the wall by Nikita Kucherov.
“I thought that was kind of a hit from behind,” Campbell, who missed four games last week with an upper-body injury, said. “Kind of got my wind knocked out of me more so than just getting hit.”
As for the visor, it was a new look for No. 11, but one that he’ll consider keeping.
“I think so,” Campbell said when asked if he was going to wear a visor on a full-time basis. “I think I’m going to consider it more seriously. I mean, it’s – when you get things around the eyes it’s super dangerous. So, yeah, I mean. It felt alright out there today, so I’ll probably keep it on for a bit.
“I actually tried one in the summer, just because I feel like that’s probably where the NHL is going. But, I didn’t ... I took it off. It’s probably a smart idea to wear one; it would have prevented it.”
Despite the stitches, Campbell finished the night winning three of seven faceoffs in 9:28 of time on ice.
- You have a feeling that the Tampa Bay Lightning, while an undeniable Eastern Conference powerhouse throughout the regular season, would like to avoid the Boston Bruins this spring, no?
Yes, the Bolts were dealing with some injuries for this one (top-four defenseman Braydon Coburn, top-six forward Ondrej Palat, veteran defenseman Matt Carle, and solid bottom-six forward Cedric Paquette were all unavailable for this one), and sure, these teams still have two games to go with the venue switching to the Lightning-friendly confines of Amalie Arena, but the B’s have Tampa’s number.
It’s honestly as simple as that. Dating back to the 2011-12 season, the B’s have now won 11 of the last 13 head-to-heads against the Lightning, and the Lightning’s go-to postseason goaltender, the 6-foot-7 Ben Bishop, remains without a win in now five career starts against the Black and Gold.
“It’s hard to tell,” B’s center
Patrice Bergeron said when pressed about their success against the Lightning. “Moving forward we know that it’s all teams that we might face in the playoffs. We need to make sure we play well against all of them and matchup well, but I can't really pinpoint one thing. We definitely have to find a way to play well against all of these top teams.”
Up next
Boston will get back to the rink on Saturday afternoon for a matinee affair with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The B’s are 1-0-1 against the Pens this year, with both games requiring bonus hockey, but the Bruins took the prior head-to-head at CONSOL Energy Center by way of a tone-setting win on Jan. 7.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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