Good National Hockey League teams often build up two goal leads. Good National Hockey League teams often hold on to those two goal leads. On Thursday night against the Nashville Predators, the Lightning successfully did the former but failed to do the latter. The result was embarrassing. A terrible effort and some penalty killing woes ultimately turned a 2-0 lead into a 3-2 regulation time loss for the Lightning. For a team that many people consider to be a contender in the East, that simply isn’t good enough.
Jon Cooper sounded about as disappointed as I’ve ever heard him after the game, and he had every reason to be. After a two week Olympic break, the Lightning should have been refresehd, reenergized, and ready to go. The Lightning should have gone to the rink prepared to beat a team that, let’s be honest, they should beat. Instead, however, the Lightning came out flatter than flat. After building up a two goal lead in the first period, the Bolts only managed to fire seven shots on goal in the last 40 minutes of play. Uninspiring isn’t a strong enough word.
Anyone who thought that Marty St. Louis would be a distraction thanks to his rumored trade request was quickly silenced, as the Lightning captain scored both Tampa goals in the first period. The first, which came at the 5:26 mark, was an easy tap in for St. Louis. Ondrej Palat made a nice move in the slot and hit the post, allowing for St. Louis to knock home the biscuit. Less than four minutes later, with his Bolts on the power play, St. Louis wristed home his second of the night and 27th of the season to give the Lightning their 2-0 lead. From there, unfortunately, it was all Nashville.
It’s no secret that the Lightning’s penalty kill has been a disaster all season. The numbers quite clearly show that Tampa is brutally ineffective when down a man. Most teams proactively try to kill off penalties whenever they take them, but the Lightning sort of look like they just hope for the two minutes to tick off the clock. There’s no urgency. There’s not really even a system. The result of that is catastrophic more often than not. From the 12:05 mark of the second period until the 13:56 mark of the third, Nashville scored three, count ‘em three power play goals. Matt Cullen, Roman Josi, and Patric Hornqvist all beat Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop to give the Predators the lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
This loss to the Predators hurts. Sure, it’s only one game, but it was a game that the Lightning should have won. It was a game that was thrown away thanks to an effort that was about a thousand miles away from good-town. The Lightning will need to be better if they want to maintain their position as one of the top three seeds in the Atlantic Division. This four game road trip continues on Saturday afternoon in Dallas.
Until then, thanks for reading.
(PS – Riley, the game on Saturday is an early start.)