The Tampa Bay Lightning kicked off their back-to-back weekend series with a 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center in Philly.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have been tested many times this season. Sometimes, the Lightning have stepped up in center ice and got the job done. Others, the Lightning have allowed their less-than-stellar bad habits creep back in and steal a game right out from under them.
If the Lightning wants to continue playing once the second week in April rolls around, there is a lot of work to be done. Today, as the Lightning charge into the Wells Fargo Center to take on the Philadelphia Flyers, the Bolts have officially reached the halfway point in the season.
What does this have to do with anything, you may ask? Well, it means the clock is ticking and if the Tampa Bay Lightning wants to get back on track and really make a push for the postseason, the time is now. As we have said many times before, the greatest journey starts with a single stride.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The only question remaining is whether the Bolts can find the spark they need in order to light the fire in their souls and really get down to business, back to basics, and put some points on the board? If there’s any team in the league who can bring the fire out in the Lightning, it’s the Philadelphia Flyers.
When the action kicked off this afternoon, it almost seemed as if Lightning fans were in for much of the same. The Flyers brought the offensive pressure early on in the period and the first two saves of the game would be made by the goal post. Thankfully, the Lightning had other plans for the Flyers.
Lightning center Vladislav Namestnikov would pick up the puck from defenseman Nikita Nesterov in the defensive zone. Vladdy would soar through the neutral zone with the puck looking for his option. As Namestnikov quickly made his way behind the Flyers’ defense, he finally found his man.
Vladdy fakes once before he sends the puck flying in front of the net to Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov wastes no time in firing off a shot on net, which sailed past Flyers netminder Michal Neuvirth and into the back of the net.
As Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times pointed out, this is just the 15th time in 41 games where the Lightning scored first. The Bolts are 12-2-0 when this happens. If the Lightning wants to make it 13-2-0, they are going to have to stay on top of the Flyers and not allow them easy access to their zone.
Another thing the Bolts would need to do is be more aggressive with the puck and stop relying on old habits that never got them anywhere in the first place. In case you’re scratching your head wondering what we’re talking about, we are talking about their insane propensity to overpass the puck.
The Flyers outshot the Lightning 14-7 in the first 20 minutes of play. While we here at Bolts By The Bay have always been the kind of person to prefer quality over quantity, there comes a time when you have to buckle down and just take the shot. If the Lightning wanted to beat a physical team like the Flyers, they would have to be much better in these two areas in the second.
Unfortunately, things didn’t exactly get off to the best start for the Bolts in the second period. Just 1:11 seconds into the period and the puck would bounce right over the stick of Lightning defenseman Andrej Sustr. This would open the door for Flyers forward Jakub Voracek to take off with the puck.
Just before he reached the Lightning net, he passed the puck off to forward Travis Konecny who would fire off the shot that would essentially tie things up for the Flyers. There was a moment when the referees would confer as to whether or not the puck crossed the line, but the overhead view was rather definitive… a good goal.
Tampa Bay Lightning fans got a bit of a scare around five minutes into the period. Lightning forward Cedric Paquette, who has missed a number of games already this season with various injuries, got jammed up on a play and immediately made his way off the ice, down the tunnel, and to the Lightning locker room.
The good news is, after a little time away from the ice, Paquette was able to rejoin his team on the bench and eventually on the ice. The hand he seemed to be nursing earlier in the period proved to be good as new a little later in the period, but we’ll get back to this a little later.
As the Lightning quickly approached the halfway point in the period, the pressure continued to mount. The Flyers were bringing the pressure to the Lightning in the offensive zone, but the Lightning defense was doing little to push back at the Flyers.
Near the 8:42 mark in the second period, Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov would take a shot from the blueline. Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy would make the stop on the initial shot. Unfortunately, he would entirely overcommit to the save, leaving the left side of the net wide open.
As you can imagine, Vasy had no hopes of ever reaching the rebound. Nikita Nesterov attempted to bail out Vasy, but it proved to be too little, too late, as Flyers forward Sean Couturier sunk the puck in the back of the net to retake the lead.
Just when you think things couldn’t possibly get any more frustrating for the Tampa Bay Lightning and their fans, well…it did. And unfortunately, it left quite a sting.
It was just over a minute after the goal from Couturier and the Lightning were making a run at the Flyers net. The first shot is turned away by Neuvirth, much like the rebound. Unfortunately, Flyers defenseman Michael Del Zotto is able to send the puck flying down the ice where he finds Dale Weise.
Weise sends the puck forward to defenseman Nick Schultz, who finds himself one-on-one with Vasilevskiy on a breakaway. Vasilevskiy is able to close his five-hole and make the initial stop, but Schultz would get ahold of his own rebound to the side of the net.
Schultz would send the puck back in front of the net with a pass for Flyers captain Claude Giroux, who would set up Michael Raffl for what would quickly become his eighth goal of the season.
At this point, the Flyers had only been accredited with three shots on goal in the second period. What does this have to do with anything, you may ask? Well, it means the Flyers were able to capitalize on every single shot on goal thus far and have had an answer for each of their shot attempts in the second.
Fortunately, the Tampa Bay Lightning weren’t ready to wave the white flag just yet. As time continued to tick off the clock and it looked as if the Bolts would be headed back to the locker room after a completely Flyers-sided period, the Lightning finally made their move.
Nikita Nesterov would take a shot from the blueline, but it would be turned away by Neuvirth. Lightning forward Alex Killorn would get ahold of the puck and take another shot at the goal, which was also turned away by Neuvirth. As the old saying goes, the third time is the charm.
Killorn would get a piece of his own rebound and finally put the puck past Neuvirth and make this a one-goal game for the Lightning while he picked up his 13th goal of the season. Regrettably, this would essentially be the last time the Lightning would find the back of the net.
The even worse news is…it wasn’t the last time the Philadelphia Flyers found the back of the net.
Former Lightning defenseman Radko Gudas would steal the puck in the neutral zone and bring it forward. As he made his way down the ice, he would hand the puck off to forward Brayden Schenn. Schenn took the shot, but it ended up being wide.
Gudas would immediately pick the puck up behind the net. It was only a matter of seconds before Gudas would beat Vasilevskiy on the wraparound and essentially put the final nail in the coffin of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
We know what you’re saying…there’s still plenty of hockey left to play. Unfortunately, the remainder of the game was not very favorable for the Lightning, and while the Bolts were able to keep the Flyers out of the back of the net, the same could be said about the Flyers.
Must Read: 5 Reasons The Lightning Should Trade Ben Bishop
Before we wrap things up, let’s take a quick look back at something we mentioned a little earlier. As we mentioned previously, there was a moment in the second when Cedric Paquette would make his way down the tunnel favoring his hand. Well…let’s just say his hand was in much better working order when he returned.
Less than a minute after the final goal from Gudas, Paquette would find himself entangled with Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere. Before the moment was over, Paquette would get in a few decent swings. As you can imagine, this earned both Paquette and Gostisbehere time in the sin bin for Roughing.
Getting back to the third period now, the Tampa Bay Lightning suffered something much worse than a loss in Philadelphia today. There is a good possibility yet another player will be joining the seemingly endless list of names on the Lightning’s injured list.
As J.T. Brown was making his way through the neutral zone, he glanced back the bench for a moment. As he turned his attention forward, Brown was absolutely railed in the head by Flyers defenseman Wayne Simmonds. Brown would crumble to the ice, his head bouncing off the cold surface as he landed.
Brown was immediately attended to by Tampa Bay Lightning Head Athletic Trainer Tom Mulligan, but needless to say, things definitely aren’t looking up for J.T. Brown right now. One would assume the Lightning would examine him for any sort of concussion. Hopefully, nothing too serious comes out of it.
As you can imagine, there was no call on the play. One could easily assume that NHL Player Safety would take a look at this hit as the principle point of contact seemed to be the head; however, with Player Safety’s lack of action this season, one wouldn’t be hopeful anything will come of this.
As we mentioned earlier, when the final buzzer sounded, the Lightning would fall to the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2. The Bolts have reached the halfway point in the season and the time for excuses is over. If the Lightning wants to have any hope whatsoever of making it to the postseason, something has to change…and NOW.
Unfortunately, the Lightning doesn’t have a whole lot of time to plan their next move. Tomorrow night, the Lightning will finish up their back-to-back weekend with a battle against the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins.
Next: Tampa Bay Lightning: Reliving The Top 5 Moments Of 2016
The Tampa Bay Lightning fell 4-3 to the Pittsburgh Penguins in their first meeting of the 2016-17 season back on December 10th at the Amalie Arena. It will be interesting to see how the team responds after this afternoon’s loss and how Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper shakes things up on the ice.