Tampa Bay Lightning Singing The Blues In St. Louis

Final. 2. 99. 0. 23

The Tampa Bay Lightning head home to the Amalie Arena singing the Blues as the Bolts were shutout by goaltender Jake Allen and the St. Louis Blues.

The Tampa Bay Lightning headed into the Scottrade Center tonight with the hopes of ending their four-game road trip on a high note before heading home to the Amalie Arena on Thursday night. Alas, this would not come to pass as the Lightning were shut out for the second game in a row as they fall 2-0 to the St. Louis Blues.

The Tampa Bay Lightning charged into the Scottrade Center tonight with the offensive pressure we became accustomed to last season. Over the course of the past couple games, the Lightning had fallen back on some bad habits we thought long gone like their little overpassing issue. Tonight started out much different for the Lightning. In the first five minutes of the first period, the Tampa Bay Lightning would register three shots on goal to the St. Louis Blues’ one.

Unfortunately, the Tampa Bay Lightning would enter tonight’s encounter without one of their scrappier players. Apparently, center Cedric Paquette aggravated the injury he sustained while attempting to block a shot on September 26th against the Dallas Stars. This is the same injury that would force Paquette to miss the first four games of the season.

It took 16 minutes into the period, but ultimately it would be the St. Louis Blues who would strike first blood. St. Louis Blues center Scott Gomez would score his first goal of the season to give the Blues the early lead. This would be the only goal in the first period. When the buzzer sounded, the Tampa Bay Lightning would outshoot the Blues 12-8. Unfortunately for the Bolts, they would still trail the Blues 1-0.

The Tampa Bay Lightning came into the second period of play with the same fire as the first. Unfortunately, as the period continued on it seemed as if some of that fire started to fizzle away. The Blues shot differential between the first and second period would only drop by one, whereas the Tampa Bay Lightning would fire off 4 shots less in the second than in the third. The Lightning would be hit with the first penalty of the game as right wing Erik Condra would be sent off for tripping Blues center Robby Fabbri.

On the bright side, the Tampa Bay Lightning would continue to shine in the faceoff circle. The Bolts would win 23 of the 38 faceoffs through 40 minutes of play. Despite the positives that came along with the second period, the Lightning would still trail the Blues 1-0 at the end of the second period.

The Tampa Bay Lightning seemed to struggle in the third period. Their offensive pressure just wasn’t there, and in the moments they did have in the offensive zone they seemed completely unable to pull the trigger. There were times that it was hard to tell if the Lightning were just having an off night or if the puck was just not bouncing in their favor.

Just before the halfway point in the third period, the Tampa Bay Lightning would get their first crack at the Power Play. Unfortunately, it would only be for a matter of seconds as the Lightning already found themselves in the penalty box for a Too Many Men On The Ice penalty. Not that the Lightning had a lot of time to work with, their Power Play being just 22 seconds, but the Lightning were unable to get any shots off in that time.

It should be noted that during the third period, Lightning defenseman Jason Garrison had a couple of excellent attempts on Blues goaltender Jake Allen, but Garrison simply couldn’t pierce Allen’s defenses. Jason Garrison has a really dangerous shot; especially when he fires one off from the blueline. We are fairly certain if we could see a little more of this, Garrison could be a force to be reckoned with.

With just over five minutes left in the third period, the Tampa Bay Lightning would find themselves on the third penalty kill of the night as defenseman Nikita Nesterov would head to the box for two minutes for Holding Alex Steen. When you are down a point heading into the final five minutes of the third period, this is not exactly the position you want to find yourself in. Alas, this was the fate of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Tampa Bay Lightning had just 1:42 left in the third period when they elected to pull goaltender Ben Bishop from between the pipes. This is one of the biggest gambles a team can make. Yes, it does in fact give you an extra attacker on the ice, but at the same time it takes away your team’s last line of defense. Pulling the goaltender puts a lot of extra pressure on the defense to make sure the puck stays clear of their net.

Unfortunately, tonight was simply not the Tampa Bay Lightning’s night. Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo would beat Victor Hedman and send the puck flying towards the Lightning’s defensive zone. Just like that, Blues right wing Troy Brouwer would send the puck flying between the pipes and help guide Jake Allen to his first shutout of the season. This marks the second game in a row where the Tampa Bay Lightning has been rendered scoreless through 60 minutes of play.

The Triplets line still seems to be struggling on the goal scoring front. This is incredibly hard to swallow for a line who absolutely dominated the Lightning’s scoring just one season ago. Another person who was held off the board tonight was Lightning captain Steven Stamkos. While Stamkos did have one good opportunity to sink the puck into the back of the net, he was ultimately denied by the clang of the goal post.

There is no denying that tonight’s loss in St. Louis is going to burn just a little bit; however, it is not the worst outcome in the world the Lightning could have hoped for. The Tampa Bay Lightning were able to claim four out of the possible eight points during their four-game road trip through the Western Conference. If you can come home off of a long road trip above the 50 percent mark, you have to look at the positives.

Next up, the Tampa Bay Lightning head home to the Amalie Arena to take on captain Gabriel Landeskog and the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night. The Tampa Bay Lightning have been solid at home thus far in the season, having only dropped one game in front of the hometown crowd so far. We don’t know about you, but we’re ready to charge into the Amalie Arena and Be The Thunder as the Tampa Bay Lightning attempt to get back on track. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7:30 p.m.

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