Don’t let the score fool you. The Tampa Bay Lightning laid an egg on Thursday night and ultimately dropped a 5-3 decision to the Ottawa Senators. After being thoroughly dominated through the first two periods of play, the Lightning took advantage of score effects and made the game a lot closer than it probably should have been. The reality, unfortunately, is that this Bolts team is reeling right now. The loss moves Tampa’s record to 31-18-5, which leaves them right in the thick of the Atlantic Division’s playoff race.
It took less than two minutes for Lightning fans to learn that their team was going to have a rough go of it versus the Senators. The Senators opened the scoring at the 1:49 mark of the opening period after Ben Bishop got run over by teammate Nikita Kucherov. With the Lightning goaltending lying motionless way outside his crease, Marc Methot potted his fifth of the season. Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but I’m a little bit confused as to why the play wasn’t blown down. Bishop was clearly in a great deal of distress. He was forced to leave the game with an upper-body injury.
Ottawa extended its lead to 2-0 with only 26 seconds left in the first when Erik Karlsson scored his 13th of the season. The Swedish defender received a seeing-eye pass from Jason Spezza and made no mistake depositing the puck into the gaping cage. That goal, in particular, was a very painful one for the Lightning to give up; goals allowed in the last minute of a period typically are.
During the first intermission, it was hard for me to consider that things might get worse for the Lightning. The first was, for lack of a better word, dreadful. But, as any pessimist would have expected, things did get worse in the second. Despite scoring an early goal courtesy of Alex Killorn, the Lightning allowed two more goals to the Senators and lost Valtteri Filppula to an upper-body injury. Thursday’s middle frame was a costly period in so many ways. Down 4-1 and without two of their better players, the Lightning looked lost.
As alluded to above, score effects really took effect in the third. Paul MacLean’s Senators worked hard to build up a 4-1 lead, and they sat on it in the third. The Lightning skated well and generated chances while Ottawa did very little. Now, that’s not meant to be a slight at the Senators; they earned that opportunity to relax. Bobby Ryan scored early in the final stanza before Tyler Johnson and Victor Hedman added late tallies to bring the final score to 5-3.
Other than the fact that both Hedman and Johnson were able to pad their stats with two point nights, there just aren’t many positives to take from this one. Marty St. Louis did notch his 600th career assist, but that’s a small victory that has been overshadowed by a concerning loss. Not only did the team not manage to secure even a single point against a division rival, but it also lost two very good players to injury.
One final note: Radko Gudas had another very rough night. Over the last handful of games, he’s been making mental mistake after mental mistake. You have to wonder if the team might consider sitting him for a game or two just to give him rest. It’s important to remember that he’s a rookie playing top-four minutes in the National Hockey League. That’s not an easy assignment for any player
The Lightning will now head to Montreal where they’ll take on the Canadiens on Saturday. I’m hoping to turn my friend Mohamad El-mais into a Bolts fan by then. Maybe a shout-out will help.
As always, thanks for reading.