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The opening three minutes of Thursday’s meeting between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vancouver Canucks summed up the Lightning’s year more than anything I’m about to write could.
Back on the ice after three days away from game action, the Bolts pummeled six straight pucks on Vancouver’s Ryan Miller to no avail. Then, on their first rush the other way, it was Jack Skille that scored on the first Canucks shot of the night to make it 1-0. Because of course.
It was a kick in the head that the Lightning never quite recovered from.
Vancouver extended their lead to 2-0 when another bad break crushed the Lightning, this time when an Erik Gudbranson bounced off the endboard, went off Bishop’s skate, and trickled into the back of the net for his first goal since coming over to the ‘Nucks from the Florida Panthers last summer.
Jayson Megna pushed the Van City lead to 3-0 early in the second period, and though the Lightning finally countered behind Jonathan Drouin’s loose puck putaway on Miller, Megna and the Canucks broke the Bolts’ will with a legitimate last-second goal to put the Canucks up 4-1 through 40.
Just for good measure, Skille scored his second of the night 13:58 into the third, to make it 5-1.
The Canucks routinely flatlined throughout a night in which the Bolts peppered Miller for 41 shots against in total, but it was Drouin’s goal that was the lone breakthrough for the Lightning in the loss, their sixth in the last seven games, and their fifth loss by at least three goals this season.
This and that
- Boy, does this really make the weekend in which they grabbed three of a possible four points feel like a billion years ago. And this has been the biggest problem for the Bolts this year. It just feels that whenever you think you have a read on the Lightning and where they are as a team, something happens that either sets you back to square one or has you questioning if you’re just insane. Aside from their four-game winning streak last month, which again, feels like forever ago now, has there been any one thing that’s convinced that this team has turned the corner and is back to normal?
- Welcome back, Jason Garrison. How’s a minus-4 rating sound? It’s been a down year for Garrison, who is on pace for just nine points this year after a career-low 11 a year ago, and you can’t help but wonder if and when luck will change for Garrison, who by all means played a strong possession game but was hardly (read as: not even close to being) rewarded for it. If not, you have to wonder if the Lightning do their best to see if they can ditch Garrison (who has another season at $4.6 million after this season left on his deal) before the expansion draft. (Unlikely, I’d bet.)
- The goals the Canucks scored in this was were opportunistic and deflating. The Skille goal, the Gudbranson tally, and Megna’s second of the night were all prime examples of that. It didn’t help, of course, that the Lightning played some of the worst team defense you’ll see from them this year.
Up next
The Bolts welcome the Pens to town for a Saturday head-to-head at Amalie. The Penguins come to Tampa having won four games in a row, having scored 24 goals over that span. Should be a fun time.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010 and has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013. Ty is also the Boston Bruins beat writer and columnist for WEEI.com, and can also be found in the New England Hockey Journal. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
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