The Tampa Bay Lightning started out this game with their heads in their hands, but they were able to battle back in the remaining two periods to defeat Phil Kessel and the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2
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The Tampa Bay Lightning started this game out on the wrong skate. In fact, we’d venture out to say that this is one of the worst starts that the Lightning has played all season long.
It took the Toronto Maple Leafs all of eight minutes, and just two shots on goal, to have a two goal lead over the Lightning. This is no small part to what Bobby “The Chief” Taylor adequately described as atrocious defensive zone coverage.
In the pre-game coverage on Sun Sports, former Tampa Bay Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk said that one of the keys to the game would be the Bolts playing defensively and not trading chances with the Maple Leafs. It seems as if the players on the ice didn’t get the message.
Just 4:28 into the first period, Leafs center Mike Santorelli would take what we hate to admit was a beautiful pass from center Nazem Kadri to give the Maple Leafs the honor of drawing first blood.
The Maple Leafs have only lost two games this season when they have scored first; one of which was last night against the Florida Panthers.
A little over three minutes later, at 7:47 in the period, the Maple Leafs would extend their lead with a goal by right wing Joffrey Lupul on a wide open net. As we may have mentioned, this is certainly not the way that the Tampa Bay Lightning expected to start out this game.
Adding insult to injury, not even ten seconds after the second Maple Leafs goal, the Lightning would find themselves on the Penalty Kill as Lightning defenseman Andrej Sustr would find himself in the penalty box for two minutes for Delay of Game.
Later in the period, the Bolts would get their crack at the man advantage. Unfortunately, as one can imagine, the Power Play unit didn’t make much headway.
The remainder of the first period would be a lot of back and forth between these two teams, but neither team would be able to make much more headway.
Editor In Leaf
Despite outshooting the Maple Leafs 15-4 in the first period, they still found themselves down 2-0 at the end of the first period. Don’t adjust your eyes; yes…the Toronto Maple Leafs had 2 goals on 4 shots while the Lightning has fired off 15 against Maple Leafs goaltender James Reimer for a grand total of zero.
Steven Stamkos couldn’t seem to find a goal to save his life; however, the funny part of the whole thing is that it wasn’t James Reimer who was putting the brakes on Stamkos. Not once, but twice, Stamkos was denied by the goal post. We almost felt like if this kept up they should have awarded the first star of the game to the post.
The second period would start off with a bang, but not for the same reasons as the first period. Not even four minutes would tick off of the clock before there would be pushing and shoving on the ice. The good news is, no one would go off for this little tie up. The absolute last thing the Bolts need is to spend more time in the box.
Almost out of nowhere, we start to get a glimpse of the Tampa Bay Lightning team we remember from earlier in the season.
At around 5:30 in the period, Joffrey Lupul would find himself in the box for two minutes for Slashing Matt Carle. While on the Power Play, Ryan Callahan would get ahold of a rebound from a deflected shot from Steven Stamkos and send the puck flying past Reimer to get the Lightning on the board.
This is the first Power Play Goal the Lightning has seen since Jonathan Drouin got one past Marc-Andre Fleury on December 15th in the Lightning’s 4-2 loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Just over three minutes later, at 9:46 in the second period, center Valtteri Filppula would redirect a shot from defenseman Victor Hedman that would find its way past Reimer to tie up the game for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
We don’t know about you, but we’d love to know where this Tampa Bay Lightning team was in the first period.
When the buzzer would sound to end the period, the Lightning would have outshot the Maple Leafs 17-10 to give the Bolts a 32-14 lead through forty minutes of play. At one point and time, the Bolts led the Leafs 23-4 in Shots on Goal. That is just plain scary.
If the Lightning could sustain this level of pressure for the remainder of the season, the Bolts would be unstoppable. We really must look into this. For now, let’s take a look at the third period.
The action came to a screeching halt in the opening minutes of the third period. After a tie up around the net, Lightning defenseman Radko Gudas came eerily close to having his neck sliced open by the skate of a falling Maple Leafs player. Gudas would lose his helmet and gloves as he spun on the ice.
Immediately, he made his way to the bench where he was quickly attended to by Head Athletic trainer Tom Mulligan. The good news is, from the look of things Gudas would walk away from this one fairly unscathed. We don’t know about you, but that one was way too close for our liking.
By the halfway point in the third period, the Lightning had already reached 40 Shots on Goal; however, it was the 41st that really made an impact. That 41st shot ended up being Steven Stamkos’ 20th goal of the season as well as the first time the Lightning have led all game long.
It wasn’t long until the Lightning would find themselves on yet another Penalty Kill. Alex Killorn would find his way to the Penalty Box for Holding the Stick of Lupul. The good news is, the Lightning was able to kill the penalty and preserve the lead they fought so hard to obtain.
The Lightning would spend two of the last four minutes of the game on the Power Play as David Booth is sent off for two minutes for nailing Valtteri Filppula in the face with his stick. While the Bolts would not be able to capitalize on this Power Play, it does serve well to keep the momentum in the Lightning’s favor.
This game would ideally come down to the final seconds of the game. It is games like this that we are reminded why we love the game to much. The excitement and the fandom are like none other.
For those of you who do not know, the Power Play Goal that Callahan scored in the second period was so much more than his 12 goal of the season; it was the 150th goal of his National Hockey League career.
Also having a great night tonight is defenseman Victor Hedman. Hedman scored two points tonight, having assists on two of the three Lightning goals tonight. One of those assists could have been a goal if the puck hadn’t deflected off the skate of Filppula. In any case, a point is a point no matter how you earn it.
We’re not going to lie to you, we were a little concerned when the Bolts seemed to fall flat on their faces in the first period, but they were able to do so much more than prove us wrong; they were able to make it a heck of an exciting game.
This concludes the Bolts’ current home stand. The Lightning will not play the final game of 2014 on the road.
Will the Lightning be able to ring in the New Year with yet another two points to their names? The good news is, we don’t have long to wait to find out.
Next up, the Tampa Bay Lightning take on the Buffalo Sabres at the First Niagara Center in New York on New Year’s Eve in the final game of 2014. The puck drops at an early 6:00 p.m. start time. Are you ready to Be The Thunder for the final time this year?
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