Playing against the Pittsburgh Penguins is always difficult. Not only do you have to face two of the best players in the game, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, but oftentimes you’re forced to fight the officials too. The Tampa Bay Lightning had trouble with both on Saturday afternoon, as they dropped a controversial 4-3 overtime decision in Pittsburgh.
Frequent readers of my blog know that I’m not one to completely blame officials for a team’s loss. I’m not going to do that today. Many of the Lightning’s wounds on Saturday were self-inflicted. Bad giveaways and some weak defensive play resulted in a number of quality Pittsburgh chances. As the Penguins often do, they converted.
A scoreless first period gave way to a second period that was full of special teams play. The Bolts began the middle stanza with four straight penalty kills. Four straight. Crosby converted his 34th of the year at the 5:29 mark of the period when he slapped home a great Evgeni Malkin feed on the man advantage. The Lightning have really struggled on the penalty kill this year, so it wasn’t really a surprise when the Penguins used their manpower to put up goals on the power play. It was par for the course.
After killing off the rest of that string of penalties, the Lightning were rewarded with two power play chances of their own to close the second frame. Valtteri Filppula scored his 24th of the year, setting a new career high, to knot things up at one. The goal was just further evidence that Steven Stamkos’ return has made Tampa’s power play infinitely better. With Pittsburgh’s defenders focusing on 91 and preparing for his big shot, Stamkos sent a beautiful cross-ice feed to Filppula who one-timed the puck past Jeff Zatkoff.
As they’ve struggled mightily against the Penguins this season, it was great to see the Lightning have momentum heading into the third. That hard work paid off at the 8:17 mark of the final twenty when Steven Stamkos knocked home his 20th of the season (!) from in close to give the Bolts a 2-1 lead. Assisted by Alex Killorn and Radko Gudas, Stamkos’ goal was only made possible by a very slick Teddy Purcell blue line hold. Purcell deserved an imaginary third assist on the play.
Once the Lightning had their 2-1 lead, the officials really made their presence felt. A frighteningly weak slashing call against Alex Killorn at the 10:33 mark of the third resulted in an Evgeni Malkin power play marker that tied the game. To describe the call as frighteningly weak might even be an understatement. The guys over at Bolt Prospects may have said it best:
The NHL requests you don't go near Malkin. Ever.
— Bolt Prospects (@BoltProspects) March 22, 2014Hilarious at Root Sports praising Malking for "reading the play". He was cherry picking/not backchecking. Ended up alone after turnover.
— Kyle Alexander (@kalexanderRC) March 22, 2014See if you can spot the uncalled infraction shortly before Evgeni Malkin gives PIT a 3-2 lead. https://t.co/OfftRNqwMd
— Mike Gallimore (@mikegallimore) March 22, 2014Palat’s goal was nice…http://t.co/UEx0Z8blj6
— NHL StatsNupdates (@StatsNUpdates) March 22, 2014Interference on Tyler Johnson by Crosby. https://t.co/0gEWfjx0hO
— Bolt Prospects (@BoltProspects) March 22, 2014As much as it hurt to see the Lightning lose, the guys can take pride in the fact that they gave Pittsburgh a run for their money at even strength. This Bolts team has what it takes to compete with the best of the best. Now, with points in eight straight games, the Lightning are almost a lock for a playoff berth. Spring/summer hockey is returning to Tampa Bay.
As always, thanks for reading.