The Tampa Bay Lightning weren’t very good on Saturday in Game One of the Eastern Conference Final. Again, they struggled to possess the puck, they struggled to generate shifts in the offensive zone, and they really struggled to beat New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. The end result was a 2-1 loss, which puts the Bolts down 1-0 in the series.
Despite the loss, it’s worth noting that Tampa Bay is far from down and out in this series. The old adage says that a team isn’t in trouble in the playoffs until it loses on home ice; the Bolts haven’t done that yet. In fact, they still have an opportunity to earn a split with New York at Madison Square Garden. A solid performance from the Lightning in Game Two would render this disappointing defeat meaningless.
On the other hand, though, today’s result could have been much worse. That’s not particularly reassuring. New York dominated possession, something that Tampa’s opponents have been able to do with ease through two-plus rounds of the postseason thus far:
5v5 Corsi chart courtesy of @HockeyStatsCa. That's not how you win in the NHL, Tampa. pic.twitter.com/g8F4Dc8M6D
— Michael Stuart (@hockeybuzzstu) May 16, 2015Making matters worse, it’s not like the Rangers’ possession didn’t help them generate high-quality scoring chances. New York had countless grade-A looks on Ben Bishop, but couldn’t make them count. A combination of the goaltender’s strong play and the Rangers’ innate ability to whiff on pucks made the score a lot closer than it could have been:
The Rangers have had several wide open looks today but unfortunately these guys are taking those shots. pic.twitter.com/TouGCgdt71
— Adam Gretz (@AGretz) May 16, 2015Playing at a raucous Madison Square Garden, it was no surprise that the Rangers came out flying. Their start was incredibly impressive. They fired 11 shots at Ben Bishop in the first period alone, and looked generally dangerous throughout. Thankfully, Tampa’s goaltender was up to the challenge. He made every save his team needed him to make in that first period, and so the game was tied at zeroes heading into the intermission.
Bishop’s play in the first came up huge, as the Bolts looked marginally better in the second period. They weren’t great, but they started to skate. That allowed them to fire 12 shots at Lundqvist, but like Bishop in the first, he was up to the task on all of them.
New York’s continued hard work in that second period was eventually rewarded, as they scored with only 13 seconds left on the clock. Tampa’s skaters got caught watching, maybe expecting that the buzzer would ring, and the Rangers pounced. It was Derek Stepan, fed by Chris Kreider and Ryan McDonagh, who put the puck past Bishop for the goal that created the 1-0 lead.
To many in Bolts Nation, it felt like a dagger. That was until Ondrej Palat scored a power-play goal early in the third period to knot the game at one. After some crisp puck movement, Palat took a cross-ice feed from Tyler Johnson and one-timed the puck past Lundqvist for the score. Victor Hedman was credited with the second assist.
There was some thought that Tampa Bay would use the Palat goal as a way to grab momentum at five-on-five. That didn’t really happen, as New York continued to press. The Lightning did create some chances, including one particularly memorable one, but Lundqvist made every save he needed to make. Even with two more five-on-four advantages given to them, the Bolts were unable to break through.
Unfortunately for the road team, the Rangers did find a way to break through. Fresh out of the box after sitting for tripping, Dominic Moore went hard to the net and had a Kevin Hayes pass/shot deflect off his leg and past Bishop. It was a lucky bounce with less than three minutes left in the game, and one that absolutely took the wind out of Tampa’s sails.
Holding their favorite lead, a 2-1 advantage, with only minutes remaining in the contest, the Rangers were sitting pretty. Tampa was unable to generate anything, even with Ben Bishop pulled for the extra attacker. The final buzzer rang, and the crowd at MSG went wild.
Almost immediately after Moore scored to give New York the lead they wouldn’t relinquish, screams of “luck… started streaming through Bolts Twitter. While it’s true that a lucky bounce ultimately gave the Rangers the victory, it doesn’t change the fact that the Lightning weren’t good enough to earn anything but a loss. The broken record is playing again, and it’s still saying that the Bolts have to be better. The coach doesn't disagree:
Cooper: "We’ve got to look a little bit more at our five-on-five play and see how we can generate more from that." #TBLightning #NYRvsTBL
— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) May 16, 2015As 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.