The Tampa Bay Lightning played Game Three in Detroit like they played all four games against the Montreal Canadiens last season. They struggled to get through the neutral zone, they failed to generate chances, and they wasted the few opportunities they did have. Despite copious amounts of help from the officials, the Bolts were unable to break through. The end result was a devastating 3-0 loss to the Red Wings, which puts them in a 2-1 hole in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series.
After being thoroughly dominated in Game One, it’s clear that Detroit coach Mike Babcock made some adjustments. This blogger doesn’t know what he told his players, or how he drew things up on the whiteboard. What this blogger does know, however, is that we’ve seen a different Detroit team since that first thumping. Babcock has made adjustments that have benefited his team; like last year against Montreal, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper either doesn’t know how to adjust or is just being too stubborn to make necessary changes. His team was outplayed.
Almost immediately from puck drop, it was clear that Tuesday wasn’t going to be the Lightning’s night. As expected, the Wings exploded out of the gate in front of their home fans. Weathering an early storm is part of the game plan in nearly every road game, but in this one the storm never ended. The Wings came in waves, and waves, and more waves. Had it not been for Ben Bishop, the score could have been a whole lot worse. The goaltender wasn’t tested a much, but he did all he could to keep his team in the game.
That hard work paid off for them only 8:46 into the game when Pavel Datsyuk tipped home his second of the series to make it a 1-0 game. Tied up nicely by Anton Stralman as he moved towards the net, Datsyuk had the puck deflect right off his stick and past Bishop. It was a lucky bounce, but a bounce that Detroit undoubtedly deserved.
Datsyuk’s goal held as the game’s only tally through the rest of the first period and all of the second period. Despite the officials’ most valiant efforts, Tampa was unable to convert on numerous power play opportunities. They made the puck go ‘PING’ a couple times, but they couldn’t beat Petr Mrazek. It wasn’t a good combination for the Lightning skaters – they weren’t playing anywhere close to as well as they did in game one, and Mrazek looked just as good as he did in the first game.
After failing to convert on another gift from the officials, the Lightning finally surrendered the game’s second goal at 6:42 of the third period. This time it was Riley Sheahan with his first of the postseason, a power play goal. Detroit’s lateral movement with the man-advantage got Tampa guessing, and Sheahan made no mistake. That made it a 2-0 game, and for all intents and purposes ended the game. The Wings had nothing left to do but run down the clock.
And that’s exactly what they did. Mrazek made the stops he needed to make as time ticked away, the Lightning missed on glorious opportunities, and Luke Glendening added an empty-net goal. It all added up to an impressive 3-0 victory for the Red Wings, and a well-deserved series lead.
Like it was in Game One, the Lightning’s power play unit was a huge problem. While the Wings went 1-for-4, the Lightning went 0-for-6. When the referees are generous enough to give you six opportunities as the road team, you just have to convert. Again, the Lightning failed to do it.
As disappointing as this loss feels right now, the reality is that it’s only one defeat. The Lightning are only down one in the series, and they have another chance to do grab a win in Detroit in Game Four. The old adage says that a team isn’t in trouble in the playoffs until it loses at home; the Lightning need to beat the Wings at the Joe to regain home-ice advantage. That said, it likely won’t happen without some major adjustments. The concern for Lightning fans right now is that this coaching staff has shown an inability to adjust in the past. The good thing, though, is that Tampa played so poorly and only lost by two-plus-an-empty-netter goals. The Bolts were in this game. A small handful of changes could very well turn things around. We’re about to find out if and what they learned from that Montreal sweep last season.
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter. 
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