Three Notes from the Tampa Bay Lightning Loss to Red Wings

The Tampa Bay Lightning opened their first road trip of the season with a loss in a high scoring affair in Detroit. The Red Wings held on for a 6-4 win in their home opener behind a strong performance in front of the home crowd.

This game was wide open from the start and was a lot of fun to watch. Chances were a plenty throughout the night with Detroit creating the majority of them on the way to outshooting Tampa Bay 42-25 for their first win of the season. The loss for Tampa Bay also came in the first end of a back-to-back as they will be back on the ice Sunday night in Ottawa.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Poor Puck Management

Three of Detroit’s five goals came directly off of Lightning turnovers. Two of those goals were from defensive zone turnovers and another was from an offensive zone turnover. As a result, Detroit had multiple odd man rushes including a two-on-zero for the fifth Detroit goal that wound up as the game winner.

The second period in particular was one that got away from the Lightning. Tampa Bay surrendered a pair of goals and were never able to come back from the hole they dug themselves into. Detroit outshot Tampa Bay 21-7 in the second period and really took firm control of the game.

Needing to be Better Defensively

Tampa Bay has allowed nine goals through their first two games of the season. The final goal for Detroit on Saturday ended up being an empty netter but they should still expect to be defending better as a group.

Jonas Johansson was left a bit out to dry tonight and actually was decent in the Lightning net despite allowing five goals. Two goals against ended up coming off of brutal deflections right in front. There was really only one goal against that you could fault Johansson for and that was the third goal of the game for Detroit from Lucas Raymond.

With a back-to-back Sunday, the Lightning defense will need to sharpen up as Matt Tompkins will likely be making his NHL debut between the pipes for Tampa Bay when they take on the Senators

Pair of Goals for Stamkos

On a positive note, Steven Stamkos had himself a very strong night offensively. Stamkos collected his first two goals of the season including a bar-down beauty in the second period. Stamkos also added an assist to go along with a team leading eight shot attempts.

Stamkos’ production will be something worth watching for all season as his well known contract situation will likely have to wait until the season completely plays out. HIs production on the scoresheet will likely have a lot to do with what sort of deal he ends up getting.