The Tampa Bay Lightning dropped a 2-1 shootout decision to the wholly mediocre New York Islanders on Thursday night. Head coach Jon Cooper noted before the game that the Islanders can be incredibly difficult to play against, despite what their record says. As Thursday’s result clearly shows, that’s very true. The extra time loss moves Tampa’s record to 28-15-5, good enough for second place in the Atlantic Division.
It’s interesting to note that the possession battle on Thursday was strikingly even. Even though Tampa has established itself as one of the league’s better possession teams to start 2013-14 while New York sits right near the bottom, the Islanders were able to match the Lightning attempt for attempt all night long. Did the Lightning play down to their opponent, as I warned against in the pregame blog? Or did the Islanders play up to the Lightning’s level? I’ll take the easy out here and say that it was probably a combination of both.
While they did eventually lose the game, it was the Lightning that got the scoring party started at the 5:45 mark of the first period. With his team on the power-play (!), Marty St. Louis scored his 21st goal of the season to give his Bolts a 1-0 lead. Assisted by Valtteri Filppula and Tyler Johnson, St. Louis’ goal was equal parts pretty passing and luck. The Islanders had the play completely covered, but the puck somehow found its way through the maze of bodies in front of goaltender Kevin Poulin and onto Marty’s stick. He made no mistake.
If you’re keeping track at home, that’s now four goals and seven points for Marty in the six games since being snubbed by Steve Yzerman and the rest of Team Canada’s management team.
Ben Bishop and his Lightning weren’t able to nurse the 1-0 lead to victory, however, as New York evened things up with a power-play goal of their own near the end of the second period. Right off the faceoff, Frans Nielsen tapped the puck over to Thomas Vanek who proceeded to deposit the biscuit into the gaping cage. John Tavares was credited with the second assist.
Very little offense was created in the third period, and so the game moved into overtime with the score tied at one. Five minutes, no goals, and to the shootout they went. Valtteri Filppula, Nikita Kucherov, and Victor Hedman were all stopped, while Frans Nielsen scored on New York’s opening shot to seal the deal on their 2-1 victory. For the fourth straight home game, the crowd at the Tampa Bay Times Forum was forced to leave without being able to celebrate a win.
Contrary to what some folks might like to tell you, Victor Hedman had another very strong game. He was generating offense, attempting shots, and playing good defense. Erik Erlendsson said this earlier in the year, but it's worth repeating: if Hedman continues to play like he has, he'll be in the Norris conversation by season's end.
The Lightning will continue this busy week on Saturday. The San Jose Sharks are in town for a rare afternoon game.
As always, thanks for reading.