The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1.
This wasn’t perhaps the best way to start off a four-game road trip. The first period had good energy, but they didn’t really control the play. And the second period was definitely run by the Flyers. The Lightning looked a bit tired by the end of the game, and then getting into penalty trouble also didn’t help – but neither did a serious lack of shots on goal.
It didn’t help that they lost B.J. Crombeen just over six minutes into the game. He got into a fight with Philadelphia player Zac Rinaldo, who many believe kept hitting Crombeen even after he went down. The referees on the ice apparently didn’t think so, as Rinaldo wasn’t penalized for anything more than fighting, however.
The good (?) thing was that Vincent Lecavalier didn’t miss any time with a bone bruise on his left foot/ankle. The bad thing was that also he got into the fight in the third with Maxime Talbot, and was taken off the ice for seven minutes. (No goals were scored during the resulting Flyers power play.) While getting his team going is certainly a good thing, they needed him more on the ice than in the penalty box.
In the end, however, the story of the night was Ilya Bryzgalov. When the Lightning were shooting, he stopped everything they threw at him. They didn’t shoot much – they only had 22 shots on goal for the game – but Bryzgalov came up big when he needed to. Of course, defenseman Kimmo Timonen didn’t hurt, either.
The oddest stat of the night has to be Tom Sestito’s two goals. He’d had just three goals previously in his NHL career, and hadn’t scored one since 23 December 2010. He score both on Anders Lindback using the exact same move, strangely enough.
The lone Lightning goal was scored by Benoit Pouliot.
The Lightning’s next game is Thursday, 7 February, at the New Jersey Devils. Game time is 7 pm Eastern. The Raw Charge game thread will be available for comments starting at 6:30 pm. Come join us then.
