6
0
Lightning fail by the finest of margins.
FLA-2
TB-0
Florida Leads the Series 2-0
Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed an unscreened point shot off a lost faceoff on 22 shots for the loss. That was it. One semi-soft goal was all it took.
First Period
4:15 FLA Schmidt (5), (Reinhart, Barkov)
Second Period
NO SCORING
Third Period
19:56 FLA Bennett (2), (unassisted)(EN)
Vasilevskiy was the game’s second star. Shouldn’t have been given the low quality of the goal allowed.
When Brayden Point missed a wide open net after deking Bobrovsky out of his boots just moments for the opening goal, it set an ominous tone. Still, the Lightning carried the balance of play at 5 on 5 and have been the better team, in my opinion, for four of the first six periods of hockey in this series. And they’ve gotten squat for it after a naive performance in Game One and a failure to mind the fine details on one single play in Game Two. Ordinarily I’d say the Lightning have one foot in the grave, but honestly Sunrise looked threadbare at this times tonight. And if Barkov can’t go in Game Three after taking a crushing hit from Brandon Hagel they’re a completely different team altogether whether they get Ekblad back off his PED suspension or not. Regarding that play, was it interference? Yes. Was it a major? Well, was it a major the dozen times the Panthers took a run at a Lightning player in Game One? It’s amusing to watch one of the scumbaggiest franchises in the NHL, and I mean for DECADES, continue to be treated with kid gloves, and I look forward to their three hypocritical fans sanctimoniously crying ad nauseam for the next 48 hours about that hit.
I honestly think if the Lightning can just get a breakthrough in Game Three you may very well see one of those insane swings in momentum in the series and maybe even a reverse sweep. But, I also honestly think Sunrise is going to throw the kitchen sink at the Lightning early in that game, too, and I’m not sure if the Lightning can fully withstand it. Not because they don’t have the athletes, because I think they pretty much won every matchup tonight sans a very shaky First Period by the third pair defensemen that settled down after Lilleberg doled out a pretty heavy hip check in the neutral zone in the Second Period. I actually think, even without Bjorkstrand the Lightning might’ve had the better roster in this series looking at how things have unfolded 5v5. They just haven’t minded the emotion and the fine details the way they needed to, and they’ve burned off almost all their margin for error at this point. Chances are, that’ll come back to bite them, but I think they’ve still got a little more than a puncher’s opportunity to come back in this series.
Gotta get Game Three. Figure it out.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
