The first thing that stuck out in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 5-2 loss to the Florida Panthers last night was, in a word, speed. Typically, it’s the Bolts who confound opponents with their skating ability, but yesterday they were on the receiving end of an attack rooted in agility. These aren’t your grandfather’s Panthers, I tell you. Here are last night’s thumbs:
Thumbs Down: Fans in the Stands I don’t understand it. I don’t think it makes sense. Players around the league are dropping like flies due to COVID-19 protocols. There’s no need to have fans in the stands right now, as much as owners might want the small bit of pocket change these paltry crowds will generate. Sending the right message here is worth more than filling 500 seats.
Thumbs Down: The Lightning’s Start As mentioned, Florida’s speed was incredibly noticeable during Thursday’s game. That was especially true in the first period, when the Panthers looked as though they were able to skate circles around every Lightning player. That apparent advantage is reflected by the numbers in a big way, with Natural Stat Trick showing the Panthers as having generated an 83.36% expected goal share at five-on-five in the first frame. The Bolts only managed to claw that back to a ~75% share for the rest of the evening. This was a deserving loss, no matter which way you slice it.
Thumbs Down: Injury Concerns Outside of Nikita Kucherov’s stay on long-term injured reserve, the Lightning had managed to stay remarkably healthy to this point in the season. That run of luck ended last night, as Tampa Bay lost two key pieces to injury. Steven Stamkos missed the game with a lower-body injury, and was then placed on the NHL’s COVID protocol list today; Anthony Cirelli left yesterday’s game midway through the third period, and is still “status unknown… as of writing time on Friday night. With those two out of commission, the Tampa forward ranks look a lot less intimidating than they typically would. Here’s hoping for the best.
Thumbs Down: Revenge of the Former Lightning Both Carter Verhaeghe and Brett Connolly helped the puck find its way to the back of the net last night, in what can only be described as the revenge of former Lightning. Connolly’s empty-net marker wasn’t particularly noteworthy, but Verhaeghe’s seventh (!) of the season certainly was. It came towards the end of the second period and made it a 4-1 game for the Panthers.
When the Bolts were forced to walk away from Verhaeghe in the offseason, there were many who felt that he had untapped offensive potential that could come back to haunt Tampa Bay a la Jonathan Marchessault. The sample size to this point in the season isn’t large enough to make that kind of conclusion, but Verhaeghe’s seven goals and 10 points through 11 games this season have made some kind of statement.
Thumbs Down: Cal Foote’s Performance The trouble with the way that Jon Cooper is currently rotating his defence group is that Cal Foote has spent an inordinate amount of time in the press box. Asking him to come in and play a great game against a quick team like the Panthers, after nearly a full week off, is a tough thing to do. Set up to fail, he looked very much like a raw rookie last night. The solution here isn’t to punish him for it; the solution is to get him consistent minutes in the lineup for an extended stretch of games. We know what Luke Schenn is and isn’t at this point in his career – let’s see what Foote can do.
Thumbs Up: Brayden Point Notches Two With Kucherov on LTIR and Steven Stamkos injured, Tampa Bay needed Brayden Point to step up. The team around him didn’t do much, but Point did his part. He scored two goals, the first of which was particularly impressive due to the way he had to fight through both Panthers defenders.
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It’s worth wondering if this was a case of the Lightning underestimating the Panthers. Hopefully they don’t make the same mistake tomorrow night.
As always, thanks for reading.