Tampa Bay Lightning 3rd Period Rally Fails In First Game Of 2017

The Tampa Bay Lightning’s third-period rally proved to be too little, too late as the Lightning fell 6-4 to the Winnipeg Jets in the first game of 2017.

The Tampa Bay Lightning can finally say goodbye to the wretched year that was 2016. While there were some wonderful moments in 2016, the Lightning was plagued with an insane amount of injuries and have had to pull out all the stops to get back on the right track.

Tonight, the Lightning were presented with an amazing opportunity. As the Bolts continued their five-game homestand against the Winnipeg Jets tonight at the Amalie Arena, the Lightning was presented with an opportunity to get 2017 started off on the right skate. Unfortunately, it was simply not meant to be.

The Tampa Bay Lightning essentially dominated the first period of play. Of course, if you were solely looking at the scoresheet, you would never know this. Unlike almost every game the Lightning have played in the last few months, the Bolts would outshoot the Jets 17-6 in the first period of play.

Tampa Bay Lightning /

Tampa Bay Lightning

Despite all the Lightning’s hard work on offense, it would be the Winnipeg Jets who would lead the way as the teams headed to the locker room for the first intermission. Just what could cause something like this to happen? Would it surprise you if we said penalties?

The penalties would start flying just over two minutes into the game. First, it would be Jets forward Nic Petan who would be headed to the sin bin for Holding Lightning forward Michael Bournival. Unfortunately, the Lightning’s Power Play opportunity wouldn’t last very long at all.

Less than a minute into the Lightning’s Power Play opportunity, defenseman Victor Hedman would be sent to the sin bin for Tripping Jets forward Joel Armia. This would negate the Power Play and send the Lightning and Jets into a 4-on-4 situation.

Surprisingly enough, just 18 seconds later, the Lightning would find themselves back on the Power Play once again as Jets rookie forward Patrik Laine would be whistled for Slashing defenseman Jason Garrison.

Regrettably, this was only the beginning of the whistle-blowing. Of course, Tampa Bay Lightning fans would expect nothing less when NHL referee Dan O’Halloran is in town. O’Halloran is almost like a Dementor…he sucks all the life out of the room every time he opens his mouth to call a penalty. We’ll visit this a little later.

The penalty that would cause the Lightning to trail heading into the intermission came at 6:59 in the first when Lightning forward Ondrej Palat would make his way to the sin bin for Hooking Jets forward Mark Scheifele. Ironically enough, it would be Scheifele who would beat Andrei Vasilevskiy and open the scoring for the Jets.

At the end of the period, it seemed as if the Lightning had done everything right. Unfortunately, their hard work simply hadn’t translated to the scoreboard as of yet. This is something the Lightning would be looking to change when they hit the ice for the second period.

The bad news is, while the second period may have started off amazingly, it didn’t stay that way for long. However, before we get into the doom and gloom, let’s take a look at one of the only real positives from the second period of play.

The Tampa Bay Lightning got off to a fast start in the second period. In fact, it took the Bolts a whole 3:43 to find the back of the net and tie the game at one. This was in large part to the efforts of Lightning forward Matthew Peca.

Matthew Peca, who made his NHL debut with the Lightning on December 28^th against the Montreal Canadiens, had spent the night absolutely working his tail off. Peca’s speed and puck handling skills have been a tremendous asset to the Bolts since being called up to the main roster.

Everyone knew it would only be a matter of time before his hard work paid off and the puck finally made its way into the back of the net off the stick of Matthew Peca. Moments later, well…the goal horn sounded and Peca would pick up his first-ever NHL goal to tie the game for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Unfortunately, this is where things went completely and utterly downhill for the Lightning. The Bolts would ultimately spend the remainder of the second period chasing their tails and scrambling for a way to get back out from under the thumb of the Jets offense.

So…remember earlier when we referred to Dan O’Halloran as a Dementor. Well, we’re not 100% sure he’s the one who blew the whistle but considering how much he seems to dislike the Lightning, we’re going to make the dangerous assumption it was him.

Early in the second period, Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers would come racing into the Lightning zone towards the net. All of a sudden, the whistle would blow and Nikita Kucherov would get whistled for what could possibly go down as one of the weakest Hooking penalties ever.

In addition to what was a weak call at best, the referees would go on to award Ehlers a penalty shot on the play. If you were listening to the radio broadcast of the game, you will notice how lit up Lightning broadcaster Dave Mishkin was about the call. Mishkin is a pretty emotional guy, but we’ve never seen him quite this hot.

In any case, this turned out to be the turning point in the game. Nikolaj Ehlers easily beat Andrei Vasilevskiy on the glove side and recaptured the lead for the Winnipeg Jets. If you were one of the 19,000-plus fans in the Amalie Arena, it was quite apparent any wind the Lightning had in their sails from the Peca goal was gone.

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Much like a Dementor attack, all the happiness in the world began to fade away and all fans could feel was darkness. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of things to come during the second period.

Less than a minute later, the Jets would add another tally to the board. Jets forward Mathieu Perreault would battle with Lightning defenseman Andrej Sustr in front of the net. Once he realized he wasn’t going to shake Sustr, Perreault handed the puck off to Jacob Trouba.

Trouba fired off the puck, which beat Vasilevskiy, on the stick side this time, to increase the Jets’ lead over the Lightning to two goals. Needless to say, at this point, Tampa Bay Lightning fans were starting to feel the sting of defeat crawling in. Just when Bolts fans thought it couldn’t get worse…well.

At 14:44 in the second period, Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien would fire the puck from the blueline and send the puck absolutely sailing past Vasilevskiy, once again on the glove side, to turn this into a 4-1 game.

Unlike the first period of play, when these two teams made their way down the tunnel and back to the locker room, the Jets would outshoot the Lightning 13-10 for a two-period total of 27-19 in favor of the Lightning. Despite being drastically outshot, the Jets would find themselves up 4-1 over the Bolts.

In what world does this even seem possible? Through two periods of play, Andrei Vasilevskiy would absolutely destroy his Save Percentage. With 15 saves on 19 shots on goal, Vasilevskiy would have a Save Percentage of .789 through two periods. We’ll come back to this one a little bit later.

It was rather surprising the Lightning didn’t elect to put goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis in between the pipes for the third period. Unfortunately, that is another one of those stories for another day and time.

It was rather apparent something was going down in the Lightning locker room during the second intermission. It’s not every day the local broadcast interviews their opponent during the intermission. Lightning fans could do nothing but hope whatever was going on in the locker room would provide the spark the team needed.

The Lightning wasted no time in getting down to business in the third period. Just 3:26 into the third period, the Triplets would work together to get the Bolts on the board.

Nikita Kucherov would feed the puck to Tyler Johnson as he made his way through the neutral zone. Johnson would make his way through the offensive zone alongside his linemate Ondrej Palat. Just as they approached the net, Johnson would pass the puck in front of the net and Palat would seal the deal.

Palat’s goal definitely helped put some wind back in the Lightning’s sails. Unfortunately, it was short-lived. Just before the halfway point in the period, Nikolaj Ehlers, who was responsible for the real turning point in the game, would pick up his second goal of the night to increase the Jets’ lead over the Bolts to three.

Surprisingly enough, as much as penalties proved to be the Lightning’s downfall, penalties also proved to be the Lightning’s resurgence in the third period. It all started just past the halfway point in the third period with a pair of goals by Nikita Kucherov.

The first of those two goals would come at 12:22 in the period when Nikita Kucherov would get a piece of a rebound off a shot from Tyler Johnson. The second came at 17:29 when Kucherov would fire a shot from the dot which would sail through Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck’s five-hole and into the back of the net.

Unfortunately, the Lightning’s third-period rally proved to be too little, too late. With less than a minute and a half left in the game Jets star rookie Patrik Laine would hit the empty net and seal the fate of the Tampa Bay Lightning. When the final buzzer sounded, the Lightning would fall 6-4 to the Jets in the first game of 2017.

There are a couple of observations from tonight’s game that were incredibly hard to ignore. The first of these is the lack of aggression on the part of the Lightning’s defense. The defense was far too lax with the Jets tonight. The Bolts allowed the Jets far too much space in the defensive zone which led to a number of turnovers.

As you can imagine, turnovers lead to odd-man rushes, which ultimately lead to a barraged and battered goaltender which, well…we all know how this one ended.

The second and more than likely most unpopular observation from tonight’s game is the glaring weaknesses in Andrei Vasilevskiy’s game. If you go back and look at the tape, all but one of the goals Andrei Vasilevskiy was in net for tonight went in on his glove side.

It’s pretty easy to see what happened here. The Winnipeg Jets found the weakness in Vasilevskiy’s game and used it against him to the best of their ability. What’s most disappointing about this whole situation is we know Vasilevskiy is capable of better and he has not exactly been showing it as of late.

Now, before some Lightning fans decide to burst down my door with torches and pitchforks, let it be known that the entirety of the Lightning’s loss today cannot be put solely in the lap of Andrei Vasilevskiy. At the same time, it would be pure lunacy to ignore what has been laid out for all to see.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning are quickly approaching the halfway point in the season. Unfortunately, with tonight’s loss to the Jets, the Bolts find themselves sliding further down the standings in the Atlantic Division. If the Bolts have any hopes of playing when April rolls around, it is going to take a lot of hard work.

It is completely understandable the Lightning has been dealing with a lot as of late; especially when it comes to injuries. At the same time, the show must go on, and the Lightning will need to find a way to be much more consistent if they have any hopes of even entertaining the idea of a postseason.

Next up, the Tampa Bay Lightning will finish off their five-game homestand as they take on the Nashville Predators. The Lightning and Predators have met once this season already. Unfortunately, it didn’t go quite as planned for the Lightning, as they fell 3-1 on November 21^st.

Unfortunately for the Predators, they will be entering into this contest without the assistance of defenseman P.K. Subban, who was recently placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. According to the Predators, it will be at least 2-3 weeks before he’ll be reevaluated.

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It will be interesting to see how the Lightning respond after tonight’s loss and whether or not they will be able to stand toe-to-toe with the ailing Nashville Predators. Knowing the Lightning the way any good Bolts fan worth their weight in jerseys and face paint would, it’s not to count the Bolts out just yet. There’s still a lot of hockey left to play.

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