Game 2: Tampa Bay Lightning at Boston Bruins

by Dani Toth on Oct 9, 2011 12:09 AM EDT in '11-'12 game recaps

Tonight's game in Boston was supposed to be a rematch of sorts against the two teams that met in the Eastern Conference Finals. What tonight showed was that Boston still had their game, but the Lightning clearly did not tonight. What a mess the first and third period was for the Lightning.

The Bolts were able to escape the first period with the game tied, but it didn't look like the two teams were equally matched. The Bruins outshot them 15-9 and had tons of pressure during the their two power plays. Mathieu Garon was a big reason why the Lightning came out of the first unscathed.

The second period opened up for both teams and the Lightning came out looking better than they did in the first. Boston scored early in the period with a shot from Brad Marchand that goes off the post but Rich Peverley is able to put it past Garon. Martin St. Louis answers back with his 300th career goal to tie up the game on a breakaway from a pass from Ryan Malone. Boston reclaimed the lead with a goal from Daniel Paille just over a minute later. The Bolts ended the period just down 2-1 and at this point you were feeling all right about going to the intermission.

The third period is where things just collapsed. The Lightning started the period on a power play but Marchand was able to get on a shorthanded breakaway before luckily shooting high. Goaltender Tim Thomas then robbed Teddy Purcell from the left faceoff circle and maybe that was a sign of how the rest of the period was going to play out. Boston scored two goals and the Bolts had no answers. During the Rich Peverley goal that made it 4-1, four Lightning players were watching the puck go past Garon. They looked like they were being skated around in circles by the Bruins.

In all three periods the Bruins outshot the Lightning for a combined total of 42-26. But that's not to take anything away from the 25 save performance by Thomas, because he was good when he needed to be.

Both teams were undisciplined and took far too many penalties and the Lightning went 0 for 5 on their power play opportunities. Brett Connolly had some great speed and a nice set up that the Lightning couldn't capitalize on. Vincent Lecavalier had was a terrible 38% in the faceoff circle and Matt Gilroy was given a low TOI of 10:13.

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I didn't watch it, but it can't be depressing as the football game I watched instead

1. No major injuries

2. 80 games to go.

3. I went to our first game in Boston last year, and it was 8-1. Baby steps.

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Oct 9, 2011 8:48 AM EDT reply actions

I see some line

Combinations being changed. I love Downie but he doesn’t have the skill set to skate with Marty and Stamkos. He also developed some good chemistry with Moore last year and he should be back with him again. I see either Shannon or Connolly taking Downies spot.
Blair Jones can take the third spot on Moores line.
Gilroy looks a bit shaky on the defensive end. I think we see Gervais get a shot for the next game.
Hall and Thompson seem to work well together and should probably be given a chance to gel with either a hard worker like Pyatt or someone like Rittola who has a bit more offensive potential.

by malapraxis on Oct 9, 2011 10:52 AM EDT reply actions

There’s a reason why Gilroy skated so little in that game. He made a few mistakes and was just a liability when he was out from what I saw

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by Dani Toth on Oct 9, 2011 4:00 PM EDT up reply actions

They didn't play well and scheduling

IMO had something to do with it. I hate back to back games, especially when one team has had a day off prior. It really is an unfair advantage.

"I'd run over my mother to win the Super Bowl." - Russ Grimm

by bucnut1 on Oct 9, 2011 2:08 PM EDT reply actions

I hate back to back games as well, but last night was just a mess

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by Dani Toth on Oct 9, 2011 3:58 PM EDT up reply actions

I know it probably goes against Boucher’s plans (keeping an extra d-man), but I would send Gilroy to Norfolk and keep Connolly. Gilroy’s been as close to a complete disaster one can be in only 120 minutes of the hockey season. He was at fault for Skinner’s goal the night before, and against the Bruins he seemed lost.

Connolly, on the other hand, is showing just how high his ceiling can be. His vision impresses me. His work ethic improvement from last year really is telling.

Thank heavens for Garon, or this would have been really, really ugly.

That’s a short addition to this post-game write-up, but this didn’t give much more to talk about than what Dani wrote.

"The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect"
- Smith in Orwell's 1984

by MTBoltFan on Oct 9, 2011 5:38 PM EDT reply actions

Personally I thought

1. Hedman might of had one of his best games of his career defensively. Which friday night he was +3 so that says a lot to me. And if you didn’t notice that might be a good thing.

2. Chemistry doesn’t seem to be there for the D pairings 2 and 3. Hedman and Brewer look great but the other 4 seemed to be off kilter. Gilroy was atrocious he doesn’t seem like he understand the system fully yet but it will come, he should pick up on what MAB does which has turned out quite nice for the bolts overall. And Ohlund will help a lot, he should be paired with Gilroy/Gervais IMO to hold down the fort while they learn the system more. Obviously we haven’t seen much from Bruno yet but I’m sure he falls below the learning curve.

3. Stamkos hasn’t been a difference maker. I know its only two games but lets hope that changes soon.

4. Connolly seems to me like he could really take off once he gets some more confidence. It doesn’t help him though that hes constantly in the penalty box. It will come.

by TBL Fat Tony on Oct 10, 2011 1:44 AM EDT reply actions