Tampa Bay Lightning Falls Flat In Game 6

23. Final. 7. 95. 3

The Tampa Bay Lightning were unable to capitalize on the opportunity in front of them and fell flat on their faces in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Tampa Bay Lightning came into Game 6 with an opportunity in front of them; one that would have punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals. Unfortunately, a defensive breakdown and the goaltending skill of Henrik Lundqvist would cause the Lightning to fall flat on their faces in Game 6.

As the Tampa Bay Lightning took the ice tonight, the skies opened up outside the Amalie Arena and the Lightning came down from the heavens. Everyone here in the Bolts Nation took that as a good sign in tonight’s Game 6 against the New York Rangers.

The action on the ice started out with a bang tonight. The New York Rangers made a couple of solid attempts in the opening minutes, but the Swedish beast known as Victor Hedman had something to say about that. Hedman made a serious of incredible defensive plays to keep the puck out of the Lightning net.

In the moments that would follow, both teams would make solid strikes at the opposition’s net, but when the puck crossed the line for the very first time it would be the New York Rangers who would find themselves on the scoreboard first. Rangers center Derick Brassard would backhand the puck past Ben Bishop and into the back of the net with the assistance of center J.T. Miller and defenseman Dan Boyle.

Around the halfway point in the period, the Tampa Bay Lightning would make a pretty good run at the net, but when Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist lost his helmet he dodged a bullet and the play was blown dead. The similar situation would occur a few moments later when Ryan Callahan would take a decent shot at Lundqvist that would sail out of play.

Unfortunately for the Lightning, as the period pressed on the Tampa Bay Lightning would find themselves in a deeper deficit. Rangers defenseman Keith Yandle would fire a puck that almost seemed to deflect off of Lightning right wing J.T. Brown and past Bishop to give the New York Rangers a two-goal lead in the first.

As the time continued to tick off the clock in the first period, the tension on the ice would seemingly reach a boiling point. The Tampa Bay Lightning would get a crack at the Power Play as a bit of chaos would emerge. Rangers forwards Chris Kreider and Derek Stepan along with Lightning captain Steven Stamkos would all take their seat in the sin bin for a series of cross checks.

The good news is, thanks to the Rangers retaliatory tactics, the Tampa Bay Lightning now had one of those opportunities that we referenced in our preview for tonight’s encounter; an opportunity with the man advantage. The even better news is that the Bolts were able to pull the trigger and get back one of the goals they’d lost.

Ben Bishop would get his second assist of the post season as he sent the puck to defenseman Anton Stralman. Stralman takes a real gamble sending the puck flying long distance up the ice, but when all was said and done it would pay off for the Bolts. Ryan Callahan would connect with the puck and get the breakaway. After a beautiful backhand shot, the puck would sail past Lundqvist’s stick side and into the back of the net.

When the buzzer would sound to end the period, the Tampa Bay Lightning would trail the New York Rangers 2-1. This may seem strange considering the shots on goal differential between these two teams. The Lightning would outshoot the Rangers 16-7 in the first.

It may not show on the score sheet right this minute, but if the Lightning can continue to play like this into the second and third periods of play, this could be a game changer for the Boys in Blue.

Around 6:35 into the second period, the New York Rangers would get their first crack at the Power Play tonight after Nikita Kucherov was sent to the penalty box for one of the weakest cases of Hooking we have ever seen. We’re sure Ryan McDonagh will never forget that scarring moment. Ok, ok…we’ll stop.

Of course, in the first period Kucherov almost gets his hand chopped off by Marc Staal and no call would come his direction, but…no, we’re really going to stop this time. Still…seriously?

Anyway, as we were saying…the New York Rangers were headed to the Power Play, but in actuality you would never know it. On at least two occasions, the Tampa Bay Lightning found themselves in a position to pick up a shorthanded goal. Both fortunately and unfortunately for the Lightning, neither team would be able to make anything happen on the play.

In the final seconds of the period, as the final seconds tick off of the Rangers power play attempt, Tyler Johnson played the puck into the Rangers zone and came so very close to tying this game for the Lightning. Unfortunately, Lundqvist is a quality netminder and is able to get ahold of the puck and stop the play.

When the buzzer would sound to end the second period of play, the Tampa Bay Lightning would continue to trail the New York Rangers 2-0. This would get increasingly frustrating for Lightning fans as the Bolts are clearly putting forth a good effort; especially considering the Lightning had outshot the Rangers 29-18 through 2 periods of play and continued to rule the faceoff circle.

On the other hand, it almost seems as if the New York Rangers were beginning to settle into their lead. This is an incredibly dangerous thing to do when you have a young team like the Tampa Bay Lightning who is hungry for their opportunity to dance with destiny.

If the Tampa Bay Lightning want to close this game down and send the New York Rangers back to Madison Square Garden with a loss in their back pockets and a tee time at the nearest golf course, the Bolts are going to have to explode out on the ice for the third period and allow the fire in their souls to burn brightly.

Unfortunately, this is almost the exact opposite of what actually happened. Rick Nash played the puck into the Lightning zone and took one heck of a shot on Ben Bishop. Thankfully, he was able to turn the puck away. At the same time, the Tampa Bay Lightning defense looked helpless in clearing the puck out of the zone.

The Rangers would take another couple shots at Bishop, most of which would be turned away, but with Stamkos deep inside the crease, Bishop would have no hopes of getting in front of the shot by J.T. Miller and the New York Rangers would pull ahead 3-1.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more disheartening, the Rangers would extend their lead even further. Bishop would do his best to cover the puck in front of the net, but it would pop out of his glove at the exact wrong time and Rangers center James Sheppard would sink the puck to extend the Rangers’ lead to 3.

Just over one minute later, the Rangers would take things a step further with Derick Brassard’s second goal of the evening would soar past Bishop to give the New York Rangers a 5-1 lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

At this point, Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper would call Bishop to the bench and send in Lightning backup goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy to finish out this game. Unfortunately, it almost seemed like too little too late for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Tampa Bay Lightning would get one of the many goals they let overtake them back when Nikita Kucherov would find the back of the net with the assistance of his linemate Tyler Johnson. Unfortunately, the celebration would not last very long.

A little over one minute after Lightning defenseman Nikita Nesterov found himself with a seat in the sin bin for slashing Derick Brassard, the Rangers would add insult to injury by capitalizing on the Power Play and with a goal from Rick Nash extend their lead to 6-2.

At this point, the Tampa Bay Lightning fans around the Bolts Nation began to feel the sting of the Rangers offensive pressure. Thankfully, the Lightning hadn’t completely given up just yet. The Triplets would strike again as Nikita Kucherov would get his second goal of the night and reduce the Rangers lead to 6-3.

Kucherov would once again be assisted by his linemate Tyler Johnson and, paying penance for his previous penalty, Nikita Nesterov. At this point, the Tampa Bay Lightning knew that if they had any hope of getting back into this game something had to be done, and fast.

With over 5 minutes left in the game, the Lightning would elect to pull their goaltender in favor of an extra attacker on the ice. This doesn’t exactly seem like the safest maneuver, but at this point in the game safety goes out the window and desperation sets in.

The Tampa Bay Lightning would get another crack at the Power Play as Dan Girardi is called for Delay of Game. Unfortunately, the Lightning would not have much of an opportunity to get Vasilevskiy off the ice for the extra attacker and would not be able to capitalize on their opportunity.

In the event you doubted that things could possibly make a turn for the even worse, well…they did. Brassard was able to find the empty net and bring the score to 7-3. Did we forget to mention the fact that this was the third goal of the night for Brassard, which means we allowed a hat trick in our own house?

When the final buzzer would sound, which almost seemed like an act of mercy tonight, the Tampa Bay Lightning would fall to the New York Rangers 7-3.

All in all, this was probably one of the worst games that we have seen thus far in the series. The Tampa Bay Lightning knew what they had to do tonight in order to get a win and end this series, they knew what they had on the line, and they simply couldn’t get the job done.

No matter how much some would like to deny it, even the most top tier of goaltenders has a bad night every now and then. Tonight was that night for Ben Bishop. Andrei Vasilevskiy didn’t exactly have the best night either, but given the limited time he has had in the post season you can’t very well blame him for that.

Unlike the previous two periods, the New York Rangers outshot the Tampa Bay Lightning 16-10 in the third period. This would make their three period totals 39-34 Lightning through 60 minutes of play.

We can’t tell you that the Lightning didn’t have a fair offensive effort, as they did have a whopping 39 shots on goal, but they do need to work on their cohesion heading into Madison Square Garden on Friday night.

Instead of heading into the Garden with their heads held high and a lead under their belt, the Tampa Bay Lightning – much like the New York Rangers – will be playing for their post season lives. Coach Cooper will have two days to work with his team before they will have to charge into the Garden in a do-or-die situation.

Hopefully, this is enough time for the Bolts to figure out what went wrong and what they can take away from tonight’s encounter and use to make the most of their opportunities in the final game of the series. We don’t know about you, but we’re almost scared to see how things are going to go in the locker room tonight and more so at practice tomorrow.

As we mentioned before, the Tampa Bay Lightning will have two days off before they head to the Big Apple for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Friday night. The puck drops at 8:00 p.m.

What do you think the Tampa Bay Lightning need to do, besides score goals, to come out on top in Game 7 and continue on to the Stanley Cup Finals? Who do you feel needs to step up in Game 7 to make their dream a reality? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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