Frustrating Night, Frustrating Loss 4–2, for Tampa Bay Lightning in Washington

Tonight’s loss by the Tampa Bay Lightning at the hands of the Washington Capitals, 4 – 2 was all kinds of frustrating. There will be some Tampa Bay Lightning fans that will point to the disallowed goal by Steven Stamkos in the first period as the source of frustration.

More from Lightning News

There will be some Tampa Bay Lightning fans who will say that Ben Bishop doesn’t look like the goalie we have been accustomed to shutting down opponents. In fact, in his previous three games, Bishop has been sieve-like by giving up 13 goals in 3 games.

There will be other Lightning fans that are wondering what is wrong with the team’s scoring? They are wondering what happened to those games when the Bolts were scoring 4 or 5 goals. Gosh, the Tampa Bay Lightning were the first NHL team to score 100 goals. Now, it seems they can’t buy a goal. Or at least keep them on the scoreboard. See Stamkos, Steven –disallowed goal,

While there may be some validity to all these points, I have my own theory. You see, the Tampa Bay Lightning were pre-season favorites by some in the media to win the Atlantic. The Hockey News has them as Eastern Conference favorites to play for the Stanley Cup.

They begin the season and through November they win 16 of their first 24 games. Since mid-November, they are at or near the top of the Eastern Conference. Add that solid season start with the pre-season write-ups and you have a team that other teams in the NHL are gunning for now.

The quicker the Bolts realize that as the number one team in the Eastern Conference, teams are going to play their best game against them, the better prepared they will be to handle the onslaught. Teams are going to fly to the loose pucks. Teams are going to dig in the corners and serve up some teeth rattling hits. The Tampa Bay Lightning must accept that they will receive every opponents “A” game.

Ultimately, that will serve them well. In the meantime, scoring may level off. Bishop will be tested. Special teams will be asked to step it up a notch and some of the youngsters on this very young team need to cut their teeth now.

Let’s look at this game again. Yes, there was a disallowed goal, yes there were three penalties the Lightning had to kill off, and yes, there was a shot disparity of 12-2 all in the first period. Yet, the score was tied at zero. You see, Washington was simply the latest team to play the Lightning with the energy level to beat the number one team in the Eastern Conference.

In the second period, still playing a scoreless tie, the Bolts get a break when they get a five on three power play at 6:49 of the period. This is when the game was decided. The Capitals were successful killing off both penalties, then within the next minute and a half, and with the momentum on their side, Washington’s Niklas Backstrom scored the first goal of the game and what would be the first goal of a hat trick.

With a minute and a half left in the second period, Backstrom scored again to make the score 2 – 0 Washington. In the first two minutes of the final period, Backston completes his first career hat trick and the game seems over.

But there is fight in the Tampa team. With less than five minutes left in regulation, Tyler Johnson scores the first allowed goal for Tampa to cut the score to 3 – 1. Less than two minutes later, Matt Carle scores to bring the score to 3 – 2 with two and a half minutes left in the game.

Unfortunately, that is as close as the Lightning got as Washington added an empty netter for the final score.

We will see in this road trip what the Tampa Bay Lightning are made of. Now that they understand that they have a bulls eye on the backs of their sweaters, now that they know that teams will be ready to take them down a peg from the opening faceoff, we will see just how much this team wants to win.

Their next chance for a victory comes Monday night on national television against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Puck drops at 7:00 p.m. I can guarantee the Metropolitan Division leading Penguins are going to want to battle the Atlantic leading Lightning for Eastern Conference supremacy then.

More from Bolts by the Bay