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The Tampa Bay Lightning were a roller coaster from Day 1. And unfortunately, after a 2-1 hard fought loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the ride has finished its cycle and denied the group’s bid for a second straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
With captain
Steven Stamkos (blood clot) back in the lineup for his first game since Mar. 31, the positive energy the Lightning rolled into CONSOL Energy Center with seemed to leave the building after a ho hum opening frame that came with just five Tampa Bay shots on goal and then totally left the moment
Bryan Rust came through with the game’s first goal, 1:55 into the second period.
The goal, another Game 7 strike from the rookie (and Rust became the first Penguins rookie to score in two Game 7s in the franchise’s history in doing so), came through a beautiful, clean breakout from Olli Maatta, and passing sequence from
Evgeni Malkin,
Chris Kunitz, and Rust.
The Lightning answered at the 9:36 mark of the period behind a goal from (who else but)
Jonathan Drouin that straight-up brutalized
Matt Murray up high and into the Pittsburgh net. It was a goal that showed all the pluses of Drouin’s game throughout the postseason; The drive to open ice, the ability to back a defender off with speed, and then strike when everyone’s uncomfortable.
Deservedly so, the Lightning and Penguins were tied up.
For all of 30 seconds.
And it would be Rust that re-established the Pittsburgh lead, this time with a kooky, lucky (or unlucky) bounce that
Andrei Vasilevskiy, who stopped 37-of-39 in defeat, could not corral into his glove.
Stamkos nearly evened things up before the second ended, too, but was denied by Murray.
Desperation crept into the Lightning’s game as the time dwindled down in the third, and even had some great looks with the net empty, but after the Bolts lost a faceoff with just 10 seconds left, it was over, and the Bolts were -- perhaps later than everyone expected given their injury situation -- were finished.
Random thoughts and notes
- Oh, the what ifs with this series are brutal. What if Stamkos came back sooner? What if Vasilevskiy stopped that game-winning goal? Hell, what if Ben Bishop was healthy for this series? But, the truth is that they do not matter. The Lightning did not deserve this series. They were straight-up dominated by the Pens’ four-line frenzy, especially in the last two games of the series. It just felt like the Lightning found reasons to deflate themselves while the Penguins upped the ante again and again. This was the big concern with this series, too. The Lightning (like most teams, really) have never been great when the pace and pressure is dictated by the team on the other bench. This was all Pitsburgh.
- Hats off to Vasilevskiy, really. You feel for the kid given the way this series ended, at least in terms of that game-winning goal, but Vasilevskiy without question gave the Lightning a chance to win this series. He made about six or seven potentially game-saving stops in Game 7 alone, and the offense really owed him more than they gave him tonight. You were able to say that too many times this year.
- If this was indeed Stamkos’ last game in a Lightning uniform, you have to admire his drive to come back to action in an attempt to help push this team after missing almost a full two months. In 11:55 of time on ice (20 shifts in total), No. 91 put two shots on goal, and was even credited with two hits. He got more comfortable as the game went on (half of his time on ice came in the third period), but time was not on Stamkos and the Bolts’ side. But, you could say that it wasn’t from the start.
- Lastly, I want to say thanks to everybody that took time out of their day to read my work on the Lightning this season. Back in September, I had run a near month-long, unsuccessful drive to find a new Lightning writer following Mike Stuart’s departure, and when I came up empty, I said “screw it, I’ll do it.” It was a lot of work to add to my plate on top of Boston Bruins coverage, editing, social media, and the various other things I do behind the scenes here at HockeyBuzz and up in Boston. But, despite those sleepless nights, it was a lot of fun, and I’d love to do it again next year if they want me to.
Up next
Lots of questions. The situation surrounding Stamkos is going to grab all the headlines, but don’t forget that the Lightning have to hand out new contracts to
Nikita Kucherov (yeah, he was pretty decent this spring),
Vladdy Namestnikov, and
Cedric Paquette among others. You have to think there’s a veteran cap casualty in there, too, perhaps Matt Carle or Valtteri Filppula.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • 
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