Update: Victor Hedman did end up traveling with the team. Cristodero reports that Yzerman has said it's only a bruise. Hedman is questionable for tomorrow. Despite an incredibly strong performance from Marty St. Louis, the Tampa Bay Lightning ultimately dropped a 5-4 decision to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. The Tampa Bay captain scored four (!) goals during the afternoon game, and almost singlehandedly led his team to victory. Bad breaks and a surge from the Sharks combined to cost the Bolts two points. The loss, Tampa’s fifth straight at the Forum, moves the team’s record to 28-16-5.
Midway through a fantastically entertaining first period, the Sharks got on the board when Matt Nieto scored his fourth of the year. After having his original attempt blocked by Radko Gudas, the puck popped right back to him and he made no mistake firing a wrist shot past Ben Bishop.
When you consider just how frantic the pace of play was through the first twenty minutes, the fact that the goals kept coming shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. About two minutes after Nieto scored, Marty St. Louis tallied his first goal of the day on the power-play. The recipient of a great feed from Tyler Johnson, St. Louis wired the puck past Antti Niemi to knot things up at one.
The tie was broken less than one minute later when Patrick Marleau wristed his 21st of the year past a very screened Ben Bishop.
Following the Marleau marker, the Marty St. Louis show really took center stage. He scored two more goals late in the first and one goal early in the second to give the Bolts what looked at the time to be a very solid 4-2 lead. Marty’s 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 25th goals of the year gave him four for the day. That ties a Lightning record set by Chris Kontos in the franchise’s inaugural game. Not too bad for a guy who was deemed too slow for Team Canada, eh?
With 25 goals this season, Marty currently sits tied for third in the league’s goal scoring race. Only one Canadian (Corey Perry) has scored more goals this year. When you consider that St. Louis has been without his partner in crime for most of the campaign, his explosive offensive numbers look even more impressive.
If you’re keeping track at home, that’s now 11 points in seven games for St. Louis since he was snubbed by Steve Yzerman and Team Canada; further to that, eight of those points have been goals. There are no words. St. Louis is simply a remarkable player.
Now a betting man would probably wager that a two goal lead held by one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams on home ice would be safe. That wasn’t the case on Saturday. Following St. Louis’ second period goal, Joe Pavelski scored his own natural hat trick to give the Sharks the 5-4 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Once his Sharks had the lead, they didn’t give the Lightning an inch.
The third period was a struggle for the home team. Not until the final moments of the game, with Ben Bishop on the bench, did the Lightning generate sustained pressure. It was too little, too late, as the buzzer rang before they could put another one past Niemi.
Losses almost always hurt, but Saturday’s might be more costly than normal. After blocking a shot in the third period, Victor Hedman left the game with an apparent injury. He was seen using crutches after the game, and won’t travel with the team to Carolina for tomorrow’s tilt with the Hurricanes. Replacing Hedman will be an impossible task for the Lightning. Like Steven Stamkos, he’s one of a kind. It’s going to take a good team effort and a whole lot of resolve to battle through an injury to the organization’s best defender.
It's hard to be unhappy on Marty's big day, but the fact that the team wasn't able to even nurse a two goal lead home is unacceptable. Good teams win games like today's. Credit the Sharks for battling back, but the Lightning needed to be better. Tyler Johnson, who is currently tied for the league lead in rookie scoring, got it right with his post game comments. The Bolts threw away two points today.
Until tomorrow, thanks for reading.