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Even in defeat, a 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers, the Tampa Bay Lightning clinched their third straight playoff berth. But at this point, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper would like to see his team -- or what’s left of it at this point -- simply make it there in one piece.
Already decimated with significant injuries to top-line center Steven Stamkos and the highly underrated Anton Stralman, the Bolts entered Tuesday’s tilt with the Rangers without the services of winger Ryan Callahan and No. 1 defenseman Victor Hedman, too.
Without their top two defenseman, the Bolts received a lift behind Andrej Sustr’s fourth goal of the season, scored with No. 62 right in the slot uncontested, with assists to Vladdy Namestnikov and Jonathan Marchessault, tallied just 2:42 into the first period.
Ex-Ranger Brian Boyle extended that lead to 2-0 at the 6:07 mark behind a power-play goal tipped in off an Ondrej Palat shot. The goal was really created by a great stop-and-go on a rush from Nikita Kucherov, and an even better pass that was just far enough out of reach for either Viktor Stalberg and Dan Girardi to find Tyler Johnson.
The 21-shot opening period and two-goal lead was the precise start the Bolts needed. But the letdown that followed over the next 40 minutes of play, however, was something they could have lived without.
Not only did the Bolts fail to capitalize on the five-minute major penalty against Tanner Glass for his hit on Namestnikov, but they also allowed the Rangers back into this game with a Derek Stepan power-play goal scored with less than four minutes to go in a disastrous second period.
The Rangers drew even behind Stepan’s second of the game, scored just 2:33 into the third period, and then took the lead with Chris Kreider’s 21st of the year tallied 2:13 after that.
In a span of 7:51, Andrei Vasilevskiy surrendered three goals, and it ultimately cost them.
This was one of those weird games with insane peaks and valleys from each team, but it was the play of Henrik Lundqvist that stood out, like it has all year, in an impressive 39-of-41 night.
Random thoughts and notes
- With Hedman and Stralman out, Matt Carle was your time-on-ice leader on the backend, and finished the night with 23:12 (including 5:28 of power-play time and 4:24 of shorthanded time). This is far from ideal. While Carle wasn’t a total nightmare as the team’s go-to defender, I think he’s at his absolute best as a No. 4 on this team. Elsewhere on the point, I think you really had to like what you saw from Sustr tonight, and even Slater Koekkoek looked capable, albeit in a significantly small sample. Those two in particular really seemed to shoulder some of the offensive, pace-pushing responsibilities usually handled by Hedman. It’s really just all hands on deck for the Lightning point.
- Listed as an upper-body injury, the Thomas Hickey hit on Hedman, as pointed out in the earlier blog, in Monday night’s loss to the Islanders seems like the obvious cause of injury for No. 77. And while you never, ever want to speculate on the nature of the injury, a concussion would be a truly devastating blow to both Hedman and the Lightning as a team. Hedman does have a slight concussion history, and his importance to the club goes without saying. And honestly, if you asked me, Hedman is right behind No. 91 on the list of guys the Bolts cannot afford to lose for a playoff run, at No. 3, with goaltender Ben Bishop still standing as No. 1 on that list for me.
- I think we all agree that Tanner Glass is a pretty useless NHL player in today’s NHL. It’s honestly kind of mindblowing that the Rangers don’t think they have a player in their AHL pipeline that can contribute more to their NHL club than Glass does in 2016. I get that Glass is a heart-and-soul guy that players in locker rooms tend to like, but when he takes penalties like the one he did late in the first period of Tuesday’s win, it’s pretty hard to find ways to actively defend this guy, isn’t it?
Namestnikov would return to the game for another seven shifts (14 in total).
Up next
The Lightning will continue their season-ending road swing with a visit to the Prudential Center for another head-to-head with the New Jersey Devils on Thursday. The Bolts have taken the first two meetings between the two this year, including a 5-2 victory last Saturday night.
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.