The Tampa Bay Lightning suffered through their worst 60 minutes of the year, as they were pounded 7-3 by the underachieving Flyers last night in Philadelphia. They came out flat and had no legs throughout the game. All in all, it was a stinker. It was the kind of game that every NHL team goes through a couple of times every season.
“They were getting to pucks faster, we weren’t touching anyone in front of our net, leaving our goaltender hung out to dry,” Steven Stamkos said. “It was an accumulation of things we got away with in the first but not in the second.”
“It was embarrassing how those first two periods looked,” said defenseman Anton Stralman.
Stamkos scored his team best 23rd goal of the season. Ryan Callahan and Brian Boyle also scored for the Lightning. Stamkos’ tally was his first power play goal in the last 20 games and his third goal in five games.
The way the Bolts respond to this beat down will say a lot about this team.
While having a bad game is not much of a concern, the continued poor performance of goalie Evgeni Nabokov is. In surrendering four goals on 13 shots, Nabokov looked slow and confused. Ben Bishop replaced Nabokov early in the second period and fared no better, allowing three goals on 12 shots.
The Bolts have four back-to-back games left in the season. Bishop will certainly start the large majority of the remaining games. The question becomes: Does GM Steve Yzerman recall rookie phenom Andrei Vasilevskiy to play sparingly, or does he keep him in Syracuse where he will get more games and valuable experience?
The way Yzerman values his picks and prospects, he probably won’t seek help in goal through a trade. He may simply have no choice but to call up Vasilevskiy.
Tampa Bay lost defenseman Victor Hedman and forward Tyler Johnson because of lower-body injuries. Hedman left after the first period and Johnson had his team leading 29th assist before exiting in the second period.
“You pull any of those guys out of your lineup, it’s going to hurt. We’ll see how we adapt,” coach Jon Cooper said afterward. Cooper also said, “There’s a good chance” that neither will play tonight in Boston. Cooper said they would consider call-ups.
Here are the lowlights:
Radko Gudas (knee surgery), J.T. Brown and Nikita Nesterov were the scratches.
The Lightning visit the Boston Bruins tonight.
(Feature Photo/Getty Images)
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