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Tampa Bay Lightning Fall To The Boston Bruins In The First Meeting This Season

By Tasha St. Pierre

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70. 3. 23. Final. 4

The Tampa Bay Lightning hit the ground running, but a series of bad turnovers and some ill-timed penalties – among other things – led the Lightning to be defeated the Boston Bruins 4-3 in their first meeting of the 2014-15 season.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning started this game out like any other. Of course, by any other we mean anything but last night’s 7-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. It took them just thirty seven seconds shy of the halfway point in the first period, but the Lightning was the first to strike in tonight’s encounter.

Captain Steven Stamkos would make his presence known when he scored his twenty fourth goal of the season to give the Lightning the first blood. The assists on the Stamkos goal would go to his linemates Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov.

As some of you may already know, Stamkos has been filling the gap left by the injured Tyler Johnson who sustained a Lower Body Injury in last night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be long until the Bruins would fire back with a goal of their own. Just over three minutes remained in the first period when Bruins left wing Brad Marchand would sink one past Bishop to tie the game for the Bruins.

The second period got off to a really slow start. Much like the first period, it was almost to the halfway point in the period when the Lightning would get their first point of the period. Once again, it was Steven Stamkos who was able to drive one home. The assists on the goal would go to Ondrej Palat and Nikita Nesterov.

Even with the loss of Johnson on the line, the Triplets still seem to find a way to make their way onto the score sheet. This speaks volumes about the sheer power and versatility of those three players.

Unfortunately for the Lightning, the Bruins would manage to add two more unanswered goals to their total before the end of the period. The first of those goals came at the hands of Bruins rookie left wing David Pastrnak. Lightning goaltender found himself face first on the ice as the puck sailed past him giving Pastrnak his first goal of the night.

The second Bruins goal that period would come courtesy of left wing Milan Lucic in the final minute of the period. Well…we should probably say that the goal went to Anton Stralman. The puck did sail pas Bishop off of Stralman’s skate after all. All Bishop could do is stand there and shake his head.

Dennis Seidenberg and David Krejci would receive the assists on Lucic’s goal.

Just when you think that everything is about to turn around and that the Lightning have a legitimate chance of turning things around and making a game of it, the third period happens.

It was only 1:30 into the third period when David Pastrnak would score his second goal of the evening to not only give the Bruins their third unanswered goal, but give them a 4-2 lead over the struggling Bolts defense.

Then…well…all hell broke loose.

It all started with a Delay of Game penalty to Steven Stamkos. While I under no circumstances assert that the Stamkos penalty wasn’t legit, but I find it rather curious that the ref conveniently missed Jason Garrison getting faceplanted in front of the net.

Not seven seconds later, Bruins captain Zdeno Chara pulled his goon card out of the deck and waved it all over the face of Cedric Paquette. Paquette challenged Chara after a play and rather than shrug it off and walk away, the man with over a foot height differential decides that not only is he going to shove Paquette, but he is going to slam the butt end of his stick into Paquette’s face with full force.

Paquette dropped to the ice like a ton of bricks and was eerily slow to get to his feet. Nevermind that Paquette could be seriously injured; Milan Lucic makes his way over to run his mouth to Paquette while he is down. There’s nothing quite like keeping it classy Boston style.

Now we have another head scratcher on our hands. David Krejci levels J.T. Brown with a cross check. Does he get a call? Of course not. On the other hand, when J.T. Brown retaliates, he is dealt a double minor for Roughing. On the bright side, Krejci was at least called to the carpet for one count of Roughing.

At 14:18 in the period, Lightning right wing Ryan Callahan brought the Bolts within one goal. The assists on the Callahan goal would go to Alex Killorn and Mark Barberio.

The Lightning really turned on the afterburners in the final few minutes of the game. Barring a slow roll by Anton Stralman, which almost gave us a heart attack as the puck sailed toward the empty net, they put up a really good effort. The question is where was that the entire game?

In the final two seconds of the game – yes…the final two seconds – all hell breaks loose once again. For the second time tonight, Bruins captain Zdeno Chara makes a run at Cedric Paquette. Both players end up in the box for four minutes with double minors for Roughing. The difference this time is that Brad Marchand headed off for ten minutes with a Misconduct penalty; something that should have gone to Chara the first time.

Now, don’t mistake our frustration with the penalties as reaching for an excuse. While they certainly didn’t aid the cause any, this game was lost for two reasons. The first of these two reasons is lack of offensive pressure. At no point in the game did the Lightning ever lead the Bruins in Shots on Goal. In fact, in the third period the Bruins outshot the Lightning 16-5; yes…three times the amount of shots.

The second thing that really attributed to tonight’s loss is an all-around defensive breakdown. While some of us thought that the loss of Tyler Johnson was going to have the biggest impact on the effectiveness of the Bolts, it turned out that the defense seems to fall apart when Hedman is not around.

We’re sure that also dealing with the loss of defenseman Radko Gudas is weighing heavily on the team, if the Lightning wants to continue their winning ways and make their presence felt in the post season, these are things that they will have to start correcting now.

Many people are quick to point their fingers at the goaltender with a look of shame on their face, this is not really one of those instances where this is warranted. Granted, there were a couple of saves that I think Bishop could have made, but at the end of the day stopping 30 of 34 shots is not the worst way to end the evening.

If anything, Ben Bishop’s numbers are slightly better than Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask’s. Rask stopped 16 of 19 shots for a Save Percentage of .842.

There are quite a few things that need to be worked on before the Tampa Bay Lightning lace up their skates and head back home to the Amalie Arena to face off with the Edmonton Oilers. The biggest one being consistency. If they can manage to take what they learned in tonight’s encounter and apply it to Thursday’s game, they will be in a good place.

What do you think the Lightning can take away from tonight’s game that will help them on Thursday against the Oilers? What are some of the keys to a win that the Lightning missed tonight against the Bruins? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Next up, the Tampa Bay Lightning will play hosts to former Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Teddy Purcell and the Edmonton Oilers. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.

Next: Round Table: What can be done to fix the Lightning Power Play?

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