Defense Struggles, Trade Rumors

The Bruins took on the Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday night, and to be honest played terrible. The final score was 4-1, and the Lightning now hold sole possession of second place of the Atlantic division, as the Panthers sit on top, and the Bruins in third. The defensive was non existent and the offense was not much better. The typical struggles continued for the Bruins as they have all season, as Tuukka tried to pick up the slack but was left to dry all night. To the Lightning’s credit they played fairly well, as the Captain Ryan Callahan played excellent with 2 goals and an assist earning the number one star of the game. Also for the Lightning the sniper Steven Stamkos stretched out his streak of a goal and assist in six consecutive games, and the Lightning have won all of those. Ben Bishop also had a solid game in net allowing only one goal on 32 shots on goal.

For the Bruins the only positives were Kevan Miller first period goal and Tuukka Rask keeping things from getting out of hand. Tuukka played well as he saved great shots from a powerful Tampa offensive that took them to the Stanley Cup Final last year, as two goals were on Tuukka and maybe even less than that. The penalty shot from Stamkos was a good move and the Marchand’s fault for giving up the penalty, but he had no choice after the defensive zone turnover. Also McQuaid’s trip left Rask in the dark in a 2-0. The miscues were abundant and malignant, as the former best power play in the NHL was 0 for 6 on the night. Adam McQuaid minutes seem to be wearing down on his literally, as he tested gravity and lost again falling to the ground losing the puck at the Tampa’s blue line, as the Lighting zoomed down the ice on a 2-0 resulting in Callahan first goal. From that moment on the B’s had no live down 2-1 the game rolled from there. Another troublesome thing was the B’s penalty kill as they allowed the Lighting to score a power play goal in each of the first two periods. More puzzling were the people in the box as both Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron got called for penalties, which is something neither of the veterans do often. Claude Juilen was very heated along with a disappointed Boston crowd, as the officiating was very questionable, and featured coach Juilen’s lips begin read quite a few times.

The Bruins front office and Don Sweeney have a decision to make with Monday’s three pm trade deadline approaching, as contract talks with Loui Eriksson have stalled and he is rumored as a potential trade at tomorrow’s deadline. We will just have to wait and see, and also to see if the Bruins think they are close enough contenders to go out and pick up an important piece. A DEFENDER.

My best wishes go out to Tyler Johnson as he took a nasty shot to face from a puck, in a very bloody scene. The accident was no one’s fault, just part of the game of hockey. It probably could have been avoided if he was wearing a cage or visor as player safety is more of an issue for everything these days. We all hope he recovers and gets back soon as he is an excellent player as we saw last year in Tampa’s run, but injuries have held him back this year.