The Tampa Bay Lightning were essentially blown away by the Toronto Maple Leafs, falling 5-0 to their Atlantic Division rivals at the Amalie Arena.
The Tampa Bay Lightning found themselves faced with an incredibly emotional and difficult challenge tonight at the Amalie Arena. The Lightning was set to go head-to-head with former Lightning forward Brian Boyle and his new team, the Toronto Maple Leafs for the first time since the NHL Trade Deadline.
Coming into tonight’s contest, the Tampa Bay Lightning were just one point out of one of the two Wild Card spots in the Eastern Conference. At the same time, the Toronto Maple Leafs are a mere one point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning in the very same standings. Needless to say, this was an important game for the Bolts.
Unfortunately for the Lightning and their fans, this game got off to a pretty bad start. Making matters worse, it wasn’t too long before things would escalate to a whole new level of “what the heck just happened?”
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning seemed to have the game under control in the opening minutes of the game; however, things seemed to slowly slip away as the time continued to tick off the clock. Before the Lightning and Leafs made it to the halfway point in the period, the Maple Leafs would strike first blood.
The opening goal of the night would come at the hands of Maple Leafs defenseman Roman Polak. Unfortunately, this was one of those moments when winning the faceoff in the defensive zone could’ve prevented a disaster. Andrei Vasilevskiy simply couldn’t get his pad down fast enough to make the stop.
The mood at this point was it was just one goal. Fans have watched the Lightning battle back from far worse over the course of the last few weeks. Why should tonight be any different, right? Well…
When the buzzer sounded to end the first period of play, the Lightning would continue to trail the Maple Leafs 1-0. Surprisingly enough, it would be the Lightning who would outshoot the Maple Leafs 7-5 in the first 20 minutes of play. Much less surprising, the Maple Leafs dominated the faceoff circle 56-44 in the first 20.
Once the intermission came to a close, the Tampa Bay Lightning hit the ice for the second period of play. This was the moment in time when things escalated to the aforementioned level of “what the heck just happened here?” Making matters worse, you’d be hard-pressed to find a person who can accurately answer this question.
Just 2:24 into the second period, Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly would put the puck in the back of the net to increase the Leafs’ lead over the Lightning to two. Once again, the puck sailed right between the legs of the 22-year-old Russian netminder. The five-hole has been an issue for Vasy all season long.
So…what is one of the worst things that could possibly happen to a team a mere 15 seconds after their opponent scores a deflating goal on them? You’ve got it, ladies and gentlemen…another goal. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Just 15 seconds after the goal from Rielly, the Maple Leafs would extend their lead to three. This was the point in the game where we said to ourselves, “as long as they don’t get another we’ll be ok.” Can you guess what happened next? Hopefully, judging by our oozing sarcasm, you can tell how the next couple of minutes went.
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The fans weren’t the only ones frustrated at the situation the Lightning found themselves in. Lightning defenseman Jake Dotchin broke his stick in half over his leg in pure frustration after the third goal. This seems rather appropriate considering one of the biggest problems of the night was the defense in the Lightning zone.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t even the end of the Lightning’s misery. At 5:02 in the second period, just two minutes and 23 seconds after the third goal, Lightning defenseman Luke Witkowski would find himself with a one-way ticket to the sin bin for Elbowing against Leo Komarov. Needless to say, this was not the best time for the Lightning to be taking a penalty; especially considering they didn’t even have their legs back under them yet.
As you can probably imagine, because it’s the way everything seemed to be breaking tonight, the Maple Leafs would capitalize on their opportunity with the man advantage with a goal from Leafs forward Connor Brown. This would be the end of the night for Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy.
After giving up four goals before the halfway point in the second period, Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper would call Vasilevskiy to the bench and goaltender Peter Budaj would take his place between the pipes. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done.
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The Maple Leafs would manage to get one in on Peter Budaj before the end of the second period, to increase the Leafs’ lead over the Lightning to 5-0. Despite an influx of offense from the Lightning in the third period and a couple of really good scoring chances, the Tampa Bay Lightning simply couldn’t get on the board.
As we mentioned before, one of the biggest issues the Lightning had tonight was their lackadaisical defense in the Lightning zone. Sure, it would be easy to pin this loss on Andrei Vasilevskiy (even though he should’ve had a couple of those goals), but it wouldn’t be entirely accurate.
Unfortunately, given how close the Maple Leafs was to the Lightning in the standings, the Bolts have fallen down a spot in the race for a Wild Card spot. As things stand, the two points from tonight’s contest propelled the Maple Leafs into the second Wild Card spot, while the New York Islanders fall just one position ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Lightning doesn’t have time to dwell on the loss, though. After one day off, the Lightning will once again open the doors to the Amalie Arena. This time, the Bolts will play host to Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
As it stands, the Capitals are first place in the Metropolitan Division as well as the Eastern Conference. Needless to say, the Bolts will need to bring their ‘A’ game if they have any hopes of bringing home a much-needed two points and once again elevating themselves into the realm of a Wild Card spot.
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Hopefully, by the time Saturday rolls around the Lightning will be ready to get at least one of the three injured Lightning centers back into the lineup. If not, the Bolts will be forced to proceed as is. Up until this point, the Lightning has managed to get the job done. Everyone is entitled to a bad game now and then. We just wish the Lightning’s bad game would’ve come in a less crucial game.