Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman made the most epic of execution failures as he quite literally handed an empty-netter to the Arizona Coyotes.
There are not many times when you will see a player like Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman make a mistake on the ice. Unfortunately, when these moments do arise, they are of rather epic proportions. Regrettably, tonight was no different for the Swedish defenseman and his team.
The Tampa Bay Lightning was entering the final minutes of the third period. At this point, the Bolts were down by one lone goal. As one could easily imagine, the Lightning was trying everything within their power to put the puck in the back of the net and at least force an overtime period against the Arizona Coyotes.
With less than two minutes left in the period, Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper had already elected to pull Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy in order to get an extra attacker on the ice for one final push. Unfortunately, when push came to shove, this was a rather large part of the problem.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Essentially, the Lightning lost possession of the puck in the neutral zone. Under normal circumstances, this is not the worst thing in the world that could possibly happen to a team. However, when you combine this with what happened next, you have the beginnings of a recipe for disaster.
Coyotes defenseman Connor Murphy would get control of the puck. Rather than use his speed to take the puck up the ice towards the net, he elected to use the dump and chase technique in order to quickly move the puck. Unfortunately for the Lightning, there wasn’t a whole lot of chase involved in this particular tale.
Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman quickly threw his hand in the air, which for someone who is already six-foot-six-inches tall before putting on skates, his arm was pretty high in the air. Hedman was able to get his glove on the puck; however, it definitely didn’t have the desired effect on the situation.
The puck seemed to bounce off of Hedman’s glove and before Hedman had time to make the slightest of reactions, the puck was in the back of the net and a short-handed goal for the Arizona Coyotes would essentially put the nail in the coffin of the Lightning’s hopes of bringing home a much-needed two points.
Setting aside the circumstances in which the game was ultimately lost, this was a heartbreaking loss for the Lightning, and more so, their fans. The Arizona Coyotes have already been mathematically eliminated from the postseason. They quite literally have nothing to lose.
At the same time, their encounter with the Lightning was the second game of a back-to-back series. So, not only was the team extraordinarily tired, but their morale had taken a pretty big hit from losing 3-1 to the Nashville Predators just 24 hours earlier.
As much as Lightning fans may want to pin this loss on Hedman, as the team was actually attempting a rally at the end, but this would be incredibly unfair. There were a lot of miscues, misfires, and all-around mistakes in this particular encounter. In other words, the Lightning took the ice as a team and they lost as a team.
Unfortunately, with only 10 games left in the regular season, the pressure is on and the Lightning is quickly approaching their do-or-die moment. The Bolts were on such a good run until they returned home to the Amalie Arena, then things began to quickly fall apart.
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If the Lightning doesn’t find a way to get their heads back in the game and some of their recently injured players healthy once again, the words mathematically eliminated may come sooner than Lightning fans are prepared to hear.
Next up, the Tampa Bay Lightning are headed to the TD Garden in Boston to go one-on-one with the Boston Bruins. The Bruins have not exactly been kind to the Lightning over the years, so it is going to take a lot of hard work and determination to get things done in Beantown.
Just 24 hours later, the Bolts will be headed to Motown where they will take on the Detroit Red Wings. As usual, there is no shortage of animosity between these two teams. Once again, the Lightning will have to bring their ‘A’ game if they have any hopes of bringing home the two points against the Red Wings.
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Here’s hoping the team made good use of their day off and are ready to charge into the TD Garden and put on one heck of the show against the big, bad Bruins. There is still time to make something of the season, but if they’re going to do it, the time is definitely now.