It was not a great weekend for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tyler Motte is on the injured list, Steven Stamkos was listed as “day-to-day,” and the Bolts lost both of their games while giving up a combined 11 goals in the process.
We here at Bolts by the Bay are not going to sound the panic alarms for what this weekend means for the season as a whole. Still, we are going to point out that puck management was a massive issue over the weekend, and if the Lightning plan on winning in October, and not fall too far behind before Andrei Vasilevskiy comes back, it will need to improve.
Tampa Bay Lightning: Take care of the puck
In truth, even if the Lightning had The Big Cat, they probably wouldn’t have won either game this weekend. The Bolts were on their heels throughout both contests and while Tampa was able to score some goals themselves, poor puck management derailed any hope they had of pulling out either game.
Against Detroit in a 6-4 defeat, with the final goal coming from an empty netter, four of the goals could be directly attributed to not taking care of the puck.
- Eric Cernak’s failed clearance on a spinning backhand leads to the first Detroit goal
- Darren Raddysh got stripped in the corner, leading to the sequence of Detroit’s second goal
- Victor Hedman was stripped along the boards by Dylan Larkin, and one second later, the puck was in the net
- Brandon Hagel was stripped in the offensive zone, leading to a 2 vs 0 and the fifth goal of the game
Well, you know, everyone has a bad night here and there. So, let’s check in on how Ottawa scored their goals.
- Luke Glendening has a puck get away from him during a board battle that is immediately set into the slot and put away by Brady Tkachuk
- Nick Perbix has his pass attempt around the boards met to the waiting stick of Vladimir Tarasenko, who found former Tampa Bay Lightning forward Mathieu Joseph
Lightning radio announcer Dave Mishkin said it best on his Extra Shift piece:
"“As they did in Saturday’s game in Detroit, the Lightning hurt themselves with turnovers. It’s true that they committed fewer mistakes in this contest against the Senators, but two second-period d-zone turnovers led directly to Ottawa goals. Those tallies proved to be costly; they offset two Lightning goals in the second period and allowed the Sens to enter the final frame with the lead.”"
We know Tampa is capable of taking care of the puck. Last season, according to Money Puck, the Bolts had the fourth fewest giveaways in the NHL.
They will need to regain that form tomorrow night as they complete the road trip in Buffalo.