The Tampa Bay Lightning played a solid 20 minutes on Thursday night against the St. Louis Blues, but a solid 20 minutes is rarely good enough in today’s National Hockey League. The result was a disappointing and embarrassing 6-3 loss against an out-of-conference foe.
Outshot 44-29 overall, it became quite clear that Thursday wasn’t going to be Tampa’s night quite early on. Just 1:50 into the contest, Mark Barberio and Anton Stralman blew their coverage, which allowed TJ Oshie to sneak up the middle and beat Ben Bishop for his 15th of the season.
Things went from bad to worse for the Bolts only minutes later when Dmitrij Jaskin was able to split the team’s defense on his way to scoring a power play goal. That made it 2-0, and really silenced the crowd at Amalie Arena. The Lightning were outshot 17-6 in that opening frame, so it was really not a surprise to see them in a hole. The Blues played a picture perfect road period and were rewarded as a result.
The Lightning briefly cut the St. Louis lead to one just over eight minutes into the second period when Tyler Johnson fired home his 20th of the season. Assisted beautifully by Nikita Kucherov, Johnson was able to get the puck past Brian Elliott from a nearly impossible angle. The triplets went to work and made it a game, as they’ve done on so many occasions this year.
Just as it looked like the Johnson goal might wake up the troops and spark a comeback, things took another turn in the wrong direction. This time Steven Stamkos was the goat, as he made an ill-advised play up the middle of the ice and gave the puck away to David Backes. He sent the puck towards Ben Bishop, and Alex Steen tipped it along the way. Just like that St. Louis had restored its two-goal lead. St. Louis went on to score two more goals in succession, courtesy of Backes and Paul Stastny, to make it a 5-1 game. That ended Ben Bishop's night. Ugly doesn’t begin to describe it.
That Stamkos giveaway proved to be rather consequential, as it truly sucked the life out of the Lightning and gave the Blues the chance to run away with things. Had he just made the simple play out of the zone, it’s hard to believe that the team would have collapsed in the way it did. That play’s impact on the game became even more pronounced, as Brett Connolly scored his 11th of the season before the second period came to an end. Connolly’s goal was a pure snipe, which highlighted his great shot. He continues to score at a great clip, better than that of some big names. Again, anyone who doesn’t believe that he’s an everyday NHL player is fooling him/herself.
The captain redeemed himself 6:31 into the third period when he scored his 29th of the year, with help from Alex Killorn and Anton Stralman. That made it a 5-3 game, and opened the door slightly. The Bolts turned up the heat in that final frame, but Elliott was there to stop them at every juncture. Vladimir Tarasenko scored an empty net marker to seal the deal for the Blues, ending the Lightning’s night. The fact of the matter is that you can't just show up for the third period and expect to win in today's NHL. It's not a recipe for success.
Tampa is now off until Sunday, which should give Jon Cooper & Co. plenty of time to fix some of the errors that plagued the team on Thursday. Hopefully the Lightning will be better when the San Jose Sharks get to town; this hellish month of February doesn’t get any easier.
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.