Tampa Bay Lightning drop last game of home stand to Calgary Flames
The Tampa Bay Lightning lost the last game of their homestand before entering their bye week the Calgary Flames by an embarrassing score of 5-1.
Tonight, the Tampa Bay Lightning lost, and lost handily, to the Calgary Flames. Fortunately, I haven’t had to write many articles like this so far this season.
The Bolts managed to dig themselves a hole just 29 seconds into the game. After a turnover in the neutral zone, the Flames earned themselves a 2-1 and wasted no time putting the puck behind Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Directly after the goal, Alex Killorn and Troy Brouwer would drop the gloves. Brouwer elbowed Mikhail Sergachev into the boards and as there was no call from the refs, Killorn decided to serve his own justice.
Unfortunately, Killorn would be the clear loser of this fight, but it’s good to see this kind of comradery. Killorn, a veteran with the Bolts, didn’t hesitate to stick up for a rookie. This team has fun playing with each other, and they
The Lightning would get off to a quick start themselves once the second period got underway. Brayden Point would show off his deadly accuracy with a shot that pinged the top corner and went in. Just like that, the game was tied.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Shortly after the goal, the Lightning’s two-game Power Play-less streak would be ended. They wouldn’t covert, but this proved that referees, in fact, still called penalties on the opponents of the Bolts.
Just around 3 minutes later, Cedric Paquette would be taken down and a penalty shot was awarded. Mike Smith would continue to stand on his head and he shut down Paquette.
Disaster would strike for the Bolts later in the period as Victor Hedman left for the locker room after a collision along the boards. He put very little weight on his left leg and appeared to be in a good amount of pain.
The collision that caused the injury appeared harmless at first, but upon further review, it was revealed that a knee-on-knee collision caused Hedman’s left knee to buckle inwards. Later he would be ruled out for the rest of the game with a “Lower-Body injury”. At the time of the writing of this article, there have been no more updates on Hedman’s condition.
After this potentially devastating event, the Flames would end up netting two more before the end of the period. The Lightning seemed deflated towards the end of the second and Calgary capitalized.
The third period wouldn’t be much better for the Lightning. The only changes to the scoreboard would be in the favor of Calgary, and the Bolts would lose the game by a final score of 5-1.
The Lightning had no lack of shots on goal tonight. The only thing that prevented them from winning was Calgary’s goaltender, Mike Smith. Stopping a penalty shot and all but one of the Lightning’s 34 shots on goal, Smith effectively shut down the Bolt’s league-leading offense.
Aside from Smith’s spectacular play, the team as a whole seemed deflated after Hedman’s injury. Unfortunately, we’ve seen this happen to the Lightning before, and there’s really nothing to be done for it. No one wants to see a teammate hurt, especially as key of a player as Victor Hedman. For now, all that can be done is hope that the injury isn’t long-term.
Next: Dan Girardi Feeling Better, But Not Ready To Return
The Tampa Bay Lightning will be off for the next five days on their bye week. Hopefully, this will give the team a chance to rest and heal before the second half of the season. Their next game will be against the Pacific-leading Vegas Golden Knights on the 18th.