Tampa Bay Lightning Can’t Hold On After Injuries, Fall to Penguins 4-2

The Tampa Bay Lightning came out of the gate with a fire in their skates. Unfortunately, injuries in the second period seemed to take all the wind out of their sails and the Lightning fall to the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2.

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The first period of play involved a lot of back and forth between the Lightning and the Penguins. The Lightning seemed to dominate the offense throughout the first period. In the first twenty minutes, the Lightning outshot the Penguins 12-5 and owned the Faceoff Circle 10-5.

First blood would not be struck until the final seconds of the period when Penguins center Brandon Sutter would net a shorthanded goal with the assist of defenseman Rob Scuderi.

The good news is, it wouldn’t take long for the Bolts to strike back. In fact, it would only take about 24 seconds. As the period came to a close, it would be Jonathan Drouin who would even things up with a Power Play Goal with assists from center Tyler Johnson and right wing Nikita Kucherov.

Unfortunately, the beginning of the second period would bring some pretty bad news for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The first bit of bad news was the potential injury to Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman. The good news on this one is that it turned out to be much less serious than initially believed and he returned to the ice.

The news would not be so good between the pipes. When the Lightning took the ice fans began to wondering why Evgeni Nabokov was between the pipes for the Bolts in lieu of starting goaltender Ben Bishop. The team’s lack of information only made the anticipation worse.

Unfortunately, our fears would come to pass when Bryan Burns announced that Ben Bishop had in fact sustained a Lower Body Injury and would not be returning to tonight’s game. As much as we would like to say that the Lightning would be able to overcome, it was just not meant to be.

It wouldn’t be long before the Pens would strike in the second period. At just 2:55, Penguins right wing Bryan Rust would score his first ever National Hockey League goal with the assist from center Andrew Ebbett.

It wouldn’t be until the final seconds of the period before the Pens would strike again. This time it would be former Lightning right wing Steve Downie who would find the back of the net for his fifth goal of the season.

While the Lightning would still hold the lead in both Shots on Goal and Faceoffs Won, they were outplayed in the second period by the Pens.

During the third period, the Pens would increase their lead to three with a goal from defenseman Brian Dumoulin, who would also score his first NHL goal. Downie would find his name on the scoreboard once again as the primary assist alongside center Nick Spaling.

In the final four minutes of the game, the Lightning would make an attempt at a comeback with a goal from right wing Nikita Kucherov. The lone assist on the goal would go to Valtteri Filppula.

While we are sure that the players were just as thrown off by Bishop’s quick and unexplained exit in the second period, the team is going to have to find a way to win in the face of issues like this. We’re not real sure what the reason is, but it almost seems as if the team plays different in front of Nabokov than they do in front of Bishop.

This is the same thing that we went through last season with Anders Lindback. While I will still assert that Nabokov is a step in the right direction, if the team cannot pull it together in front of him, then it is all a moot point.

On the other side of the ice, there is no denying that Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury played a spectacular game. Fleury made some key saves that may have very well stolen the game away from the Bolts. He stopped 28 of 30 shot for a Save Percentage of .933.

It is no surprise that he was able to pull off this level of a performance. Fleury doesn’t lead the National Hockey League in shutouts by accident.

This is definitely not the way that the Bolts wanted to start off this road trip. Tomorrow night, they have a brand new challenge in front of them. They will head down the road to the Wells Fargo Center and take on Claude Giroux and the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Flyers have been hot as of late, winning their last two encounters; once against the New Jersey Devils and the other against the Carolina Hurricanes.

While it is unknown at this point what will be happening between the pipes for the Bolts, we do know that the Bolts are going to have to bring their A-Game if they want to get back on track and keep a hold of their spot at the top of the division.

What did you think of tonight’s game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Pittsburgh Penguins? What can the Lightning take away from tonight’s performance and use to make them stronger tomorrow night against the Flyers? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

The puck drops at 7:00 p.m. once again, so be ready to buckle up and Be The Thunder once again.

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