Game 80: Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay

The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-4.

This game started out slow for both teams. You almost had to wonder if anyone cared enough to do anything. Other than St. Louis, of course. Things sort of drifted along until the second period when Pittsburgh started scoring.

And then, true to season form, the Lightning attempted a comeback from a 4-0 deficit in the third period. If they could start a game being down by three or four goals, I think they'd do so much better. It seems to be the way they prefer to play. Or something. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but that's the way it's been all season.

Ramo had a pretty good game, but I've seen him do better. Halpern had a great second half of the game. St. Louis finally got his 30th goal of the season. Unfortunately, Malone broke his right hand while blocking a shot - or so I'd heard was the case. Hopefully, that's just a simple fracture and not something more complicated.

Special teams were awful. They couldn't convert on the seven power plays they were given. And they allowed two goals during the five penalty kills they had. But they did out-shoot the Penguins 37-31, so that was something.