2
0
Lightning check out late in meaningless regular season finale.
TB-0
NYR-4
Jonas Johansson allowed four goals on 23 shots as the sacrificial lamb to slaughter.
First Period
NO SCORING
Second Period
1:02 NYR Trocheck (26), (Miller)(SH)
Third Period
4:02 NYR Kreider (22), (Zibanejad, Cuylle)
12:50 NYR Zibanejad (19), (Miller)
16:24 NYR Zibanejad (20), (Kreider)
The Lightning actually played a decent game up until Kreider’s goal made it 2-0 when he got kind of a lucky bounce back onto his stick after getting a shot blocked. After that the Lightning looked like they made a collective business decision to warm up the bus in a game that has zero implications on the standings or even personal accolades.
The Lightning can be proud of this season. 102 points. Second best goal differential in the league. Kucherov gets a second straight Art Ross Trophy. Four players at or over a point a game. There’s a lot of doom and gloom quietly circling the team from media folks right now that I think has more to do with some of the injuries the team is dealing with, particularly Bjorkstrand’s, than with the actual product the team put on the rink this season. And I certainly hope Sunrise walks into Tuesday thinking they can just roll their sticks and gloves out on the ice to beat the Lightning too.
With the Lightning failing to reach agreement with Isaac Howard before regular season’s end, I would also presume it a 99.999% certainty he’s done with the organization and his rights will be traded around the draft. I suspect it’ll be an interesting story when the real truth around that negotiation finally filters out into the public.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
