Tampa Bay Lightning

The Day-After Digest is a new series that will appear regularly after every Lightning game as part game recap, analysis and scouting report.

By Mike Gallimore

The Rundown

The Lightning mounted a furious comeback attempt, scoring three goals in less than six minutes, but ultimately found, not surprisingly, that their four-goal hole early in the third period proved insurmountable. Tampa Bay was outshot 44-26 for the game by New York, which frustrated the Lightning attack throughout much of the first two periods. As Tampa Bay began to press and the team's structure unraveled, the Islanders were able to generate multiple breakaways and odd-man rushes, of which all of New York's goals were the result of.

"We were opening up the game," coach Guy Boucher explained afterward. "We were trying to get the goal, getting impatient."

Martin St. Louis, Benoit Pouliot and Steven Stamkos, scored for the Lightning. It was St. Louis' third goal of the season while Pouliot and Stamkos, the reigning Rocket Richard trophy winner, both notched their first.

Anders Lindback, who made 40 saves in his second start with the team, might want the last two goals he gave up back but it's hard to find fault with his performance on a night where many of the shots he faced were quality scoring chances.

Pierre-Cedric Labrie, who was scratched along with Brendan Mikkelson and Dana Tyrell in Saturday night's season opener in Tampa, made his season debut in place of Marc-Andre Bergeron as Boucher opted for a full complement of forwards instead of dressing seven defensemen. Labrie and B.J. Crombeen both started the game alongside Vincent Lecavalier, who played his 1,000th game. After the initial puck drop, both Labrie and Crombeen dropped their gloves and engaged fellow toughs Joe Finley and Matt Martin, respectively, in simultaneous fights.

"We wanted to bring some emotion to start," Boucher said. "We didn't want to look horrible like we did last year."

Whatever energy the team received from the tactic, it didn't seem to matter much as the Lightning suffered from a familiar case of inconsistency as the game wore on.

The spirit was willing, but...

TB-3
NYI-4

Anders Lindback (pictured) allowed 4 goals on 44 shots for the loss. The high shot totals against have to be a concern for Guy Boucher early in the season.

First Period
NO SCORING

Second Period
06:50 NYI Grabner (1), (Streit, Nabokov)(PP)
16:23 NYI Martin (1), (Tavares)
17:35 NYI Okposo (1), (Tavares, Moulson)

Third Period
01:31 NYI Ullstrom (1), (Aucoin, Hamonic)
02:22 TB St. Louis (3), (Stamkos, Conacher)
07:25 TB Pouliot (1), (Crombeen, Hall)
08:00 TB Stamkos (1), (Conacher, St. Louis)

Martin St. Louis was the game's third star.

Need we say the obvious? You can't fall behind 4 goals in the Third Period and expect to win. 3 goals should be a death sentence in pro hockey anyways. It's worse when you don't have the conditioning to dig deep in the last 5-10 minutes of a Third Period because of a lockout. Can't do it. They showed a lot of pride to make a game of it, but can't do it.

Keith Aulie was +1 with 1 hit and 1 blocked shot in 14:20.

Pierre Cedric-Labrie had a fight in 4:54. Pretty good stat line.

Cory Conacher had 2 helpers and was +1 with 2 penalty minutes, and 1 shot in 16:03.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

The Day-After Digest is a new series that will appear regularly after every Lightning game as part game recap, analysis and scouting report.

By Mike Gallimore

The Rundown

The Lightning opened the 2012-2013 season in highly entertaining fashion by racking up six goals, including three in the third period, to defeat their visiting division rivals in front of an exuberant sellout crowd. The Lightning never trailed but early penalty woes caused the ice to seem tilted towards their net in the first period and three squandered leads by the conclusion of the second period could have been cause for panic.

"A lot of emotions," captain Vinny Lecavalier said, "but we calmed down and I thought everybody played with a lot of poise."

Fans were treated to a thrilling blend of past, present and future as Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis combined for five points, Teddy Purcell notched three assists and Cory Conacher managed two points in his NHL debut. Eric Brewer, with two goals, doubled his total from all of last season.

After downplaying the need for getting off to a hot start and just wanting to see consistency in effort in Friday's press conference, coach Guy Boucher allowed after Saturday's contest that the home opener was "a pressure game" in that the players were eager to reward fans, especially the vast majority of the season ticket members who did not demand a refund during the lockout, with a memorable return.

Five players (Conacher, B.J. Crombeen, Anders Lindback, Benoit Pouliot and Sami Salo) played their first game with the team.

New and improved.

WSH-3
TB-6

Anders Lindback stopped 27 of 30 shots for the win in his Lightning debut. That looks like a mediocre stat line, but it doesn't tell the whole story. Lindback was steady and poised in the third period when the Lightning were under siege from taking too many penalties, and a couple of the goals allowed came off of really poor play in front of Lindback. So, all in all, it was an excellent debut. That was Lindback's 32nd NHL decision, so he's now 9 away from graduating from prospect status on this site, which should tell you how young and raw he is. There's a high ceiling there.

First Period
06:24 TB Brewer (1), (Carle, St. Louis)
08:25 WSH Ward (1), (Wolski, Poti)(PP)
09:09 TB Lecavalier, (Aulie)

Second Period
01:59 WSH Ward (2), (Chimera, Carlson)
05:11 TB St. Louis (1), (Lecavalier, Conacher)(PP)
18:15 WSH Wolski (1), (Ribiero, Hamrlik)

Third Period
04:57 TB St. Louis (2), (Stamkos, Purcell)(PP)
13:24 TB Conacher (1), (Purcell)
16:42 TB Brewer (2), (Purcell, Stamkos)(PP)

Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, and Cory Conacher were the game's three stars. Eric Brewer was robbed I tell you!

Lecavalier (pictured) looked like a dominant, all-star caliber player tonight. He scored, he hit, he owned the faceoff circles. If he plays another 47 games and into the playoffs like that, the Lightning will be a contender. St. Louis was excellent as you'd expect, and the team got the kind of contributions you'd also expect from Stamkos and Purcell. Having Lecavalier, who at one time 4-5 years ago was the best player in the game, rise again to a high level makes the Lightning incredibly difficult to stop, especially considering Lecavalier brings other things to the rink with his size, strength, and experience that guys like Stamkos and Purcell can't.

Overall, the Lightning had sloppy moments like you'd expect and a couple of them ended up in the back of the net. They also had some trouble staying out of the box in the First Period, which I had feared going in. What should make Lightning fans very optimistic is that they absolutely dominated the last 40-50 minutes of tonight's game. They were fast, they were the first to pucks, and they looked like the type of team Guy Boucher can mold as he installs his system in the coming weeks. The defense is about a million times more mobile than last year's version, and you got the feeling that with time to polish up the rough edges they could have held down Washington even more in this game without the unforced errors. Oh, and Victor Hedman looks like a man beast. Whatever they have in the water in Astana, Kazakhstan, all the d-men need to drink it.

Keith Aulie had a helper, 1 shot, and 5 hits tonight in 10:10 of ice time. Tonight was his 77th NHL game, so he's now just five away from graduating from prospect status on Bolt Prospects.

Conacher had 1 goal and 1 assist and was +1 with 2 shots in 13:50 in his NHL debut. They're going to ease him in, but the fact he can retrieve pucks for Vinny and Purcell makes him valuable. You can see it.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

With the NHL and NHLPA coming to an agreement last night, it’s time to take a peak at what the Lightning might look like when the season starts in a couple weeks.

I was asked on Twitter this week how I thought the Lightning would fare in a shortened season. My answer is three fold. It depends on:

1. Goaltending
2. Special teams
3. How quickly the team gels