Give the Tampa Bay Lightning credit, they managed to overshadow themselves by completing a trade in the middle of their own game. While Julien BriseBois was busy off of the ice acquiring Anthony Duclair, the Lightning looked rusty on the ice as they struggled throughout the night to keep their offense flowing. Meanwhile Yegor Sharangovich had a career-game for the Flames as he posted four points in the win.
During the break, we heard the Lightning talk about taking care of fundamentals and executing their offense. There were a couple of flashes of that, but for most of the night, it was a lot of the same as they turned the puck over and failed to maintain much offensive pressure. There was a glimmer of good news as Conor Sheary might have had his best game in the blue and and white of the Lightning as he had a goal and an assist. Sheary, with Mikey Eyssimont (who also scored) and Nick Paul were the best players on the ice for the Bolts in a game where the Flames were simply the more consistent team all night long.
The first goal for the Flames, which came midway through the first was a microcosm of the game. Victor Hedman had the puck, but was under a little pressure. His pass behind the net was picked off and then Max Crozier lost a battle. Sharangovich was able to feed it to Dryden Hunt, who was unmarked in front of the net, and Andrei Vasilevskiy (18 saves on 23 shots) wasn’t able to make the save.
It’s rare that a goal is the result of a single breakdown. It’s usually a series of mistakes that lead to an opponent putting it in the back of the net, and that happened all night long to the Bolts. Granted, there was some really solid work by the Sheary line to tie it back up, but that just didn’t happen enough throughout the night. Hedman made a nice keep along the boards and got the puck to Nick Paul. Paul threaded a nice pass to Sheary who finished it off for his first goal since November 2nd.
There was a feeling that the Bolts were a little lucky to be tied after 20 minutes. By the time the middle period was halfway done, their luck would have run out. The Flames scored three times (twice off of the stick of Sharangovich) to blow the game open. There has been a lot of discussion about the Lightning’s defensive system this year. One of the main problems isn’t with the system itself, it’s with the turnovers. No matter what system a team is playing, if they turn the puck over in their zone, players are going to be out of position. That pretty much happened on the second and third goals.
On the fourth, well, who knows? Andrei Kuzmenko makes a strong move off of the boards and trips over Vasilevskiy’s stick. The puck went right to Jakob Pelletier who banged it into the net. The Lightning challenged for goaltender interference, but the goal was upheld.
The Lightning did get one back as Steven Stamkos found Anthony Cirelli at the back post and Cirelli was able to tuck it into the net for his 14th goal of the season. Down two goals heading into the third period, the game was still in reach. Until it wasn’t. Old friend Blake Coleman redirected a shot to make it 5-2 to all but end the game six minutes into the period. An empty net goal made it 6-2 before Eyssimont beat Jacob Markstrom (19 saves on 22 shots) to make it 6-3.
“Embarrassing. That’s what it was,” is how Coach Cooper put it after the game when asked if it was frustrating to see his team give up so many goals following a break. “We couldn’t have laid it out more perfect for them to come out and put a great show on for the fans and they did the complete opposite.”
Perhaps his harshest criticism of the team this season. Will they respond on Saturday with a better performance against the Flyers?
Highlights
Dryden Hunt (Yegor Sharangovich) 1-0 Flames
Conor Sheary (Nick Paul, Victor Hedman) 1-1
Yegor Sharangovich (Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar) 2-1 Flames
Yegor Sharangovich (Matt Coronato) 3-1 Flames
Jakob Pelletier (Andrei Kuzmenko, Joel Hanley) 4-1 Flames
Anthony Cirelli (Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov) 4-2 Flames
Blake Coleman (Yegor Sharangovich, Jonathan Huberdeau) 5-2 Flames
Andrew Mangiapane (unassisted) Empty Net, 6-2 Flames
No highlights for empty net goals
Mikey Eyssimont (Conor Sheary, Nick Paul) 6-3 Flames
