The Tampa Bay Lightning blew a 2-0 lead and a 3-2 lead on Saturday night before finally falling to the Boston Bruins in a shootout. Lightning head coach Jon Cooper may have summed things up best when he spoke after the game.
#TBLightning @CoopersLaw : “It’s not rocket science. They’re a better team than we are right now. But can we beat Boston? I do think we can"
— Joe Smith (@TBTimes_JSmith) March 9, 2014Ondrej Palat got the goal scoring party started just 27 seconds into the second frame with a shorthanded goal. With Mark Barberio in the box for slashing, a penalty that carried over from the end of the first, Palat and Tyler Johnson combined to create the game’s opening marker. The Lightning were able to double their lead about four minutes after that when Barberio fired a point shot that deflected past Rask. Ryan Callahan was credited with his first point as a Bolt on that Barberio tally.
It seems that I’ve had to write about two goal leads disappearing a lot since the team returned from the Olympic break, and I have to do it again tonight. After the Lightning scored their second goal of the contest, the Bruins just took control and never let go. Perhaps the best evidence of this is tonight’s possession chart, courtesy of the good people over at Bolt Statistics.
How the tortoise and the hare really ends. pic.twitter.com/09fudRaa2s
— Bolt Statistics (@BoltStatistics) March 9, 2014Boston knotted things up at two before the midway point in the second period courtesy of goals from Daniel Paille and Karl Soderberg. Those two tallies sucked the life right out of the Lightning contingent at the Forum. It was like a vacuum. Valtteri Filppula was able to give the hometown fans something to cheer about only moments later when he scored his 21st goal of the year. The 2-0 lead was gone, and replaced by a 3-2 advantage. Talk about an emotional roller coaster.
Not that you would expect anything less, but the Bruins just kept the pressure on as the game moved into the third. Wave after wave of Boston players gave Lightning defenders fits. The fact that the Lightning didn't allow two or three goals in the third is nothing short of a miracle. Need proof? When the Bruins were on a two minute power play with about 15 minutes left in the game, they hit two posts and had what probably should have been a good goal disallowed.
That third period dominance finally resulted in the tying goal at the 8:11 mark of the final stanza when Johnny Boychuk fired a slapshot from the point that somehow eluded Bishop. To his credit, the big goaltender did take responsibility for that gaffe after the game. It wasn’t pretty.
While on that point, I’d just like to note that it wasn’t a great night for Bishop. Lightning fans have come to expect Vezina-quality goaltending from him night in and night out; it wasn’t there tonight. The vitriol that would have been spewed at Anders Lindback for a game like this would have been hard to read. Bishop needs to be better.
As the clock ticked away, it was hard to believe that the Bruins wouldn’t score to win it in regulation. They were just dominant. I noted on Twitter that it looked as though the Lightning were just trying to kill a penalty for about ten minutes to end the game. There was nothing that resembled an attack. Rather than a dump and chase strategy, the Bolts seemed to employ a dump and change game plan. They were holding on for dear life. For whatever reason, the hockey gods let the Lightning get this one into the extra frame.
The overtime period solved nothing, and so a shootout was needed. After both Rask and Bishop stopped six rounds of shooters, Richard Panik hit the crossbar before Reilly Smith scored the game-winner. Just like that, it was over.
If there’s one positive that I’ll take away from tonight it’s that the second line looked really good. While the trio of Ryan Callahan, Ondrej Palat, and Valtteri Filppula was victimized possession-wise, I thought there was some chemistry there. All three forechecked hard and helped create offense against a very good defensive team. Also, let me qualify this blog by just noting that I'm not questioning the Lightning's effort tonight. The guys played hard. They played well for certain stretches of the game, too. If they continue to battle like this, the wins will come.
This wasn’t a game that the Bolts deserved to win. It was yet another sobering reminder that the Lightning need to start taking advantage of a schedule that sees them play a large handful of home games down the stretch. Now two points behind the red-hot Toronto Maple Leafs and three points behind the scorching Montreal Canadiens, the Bolts are situated firmly in that first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Should that not change, the Lightning would likely find themselves having to face the Boston Bruins in round one of the playoffs. That’s the same Bruins team that went 4-0-0 against the Lightning this season.
The Lightning’s next game is on Monday against the Phoenix Coyotes, a team fighting for a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
As always, thanks for reading.