The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the New York Islanders in overtime 3-2.
The story of the night was obviously the reviewed goal in overtime that gave the Islanders the win. The goal being allowed wasn’t really the controversial part. As my co-writing John Fontana mentioned on Twitter last night:
@RawCharge: Stoppage was at 3:28 of OT. Goal scored at 1:56 of OT. What’s wrong with this picture?…It was the length of time that the goal was under review that was controversial.
From the angle that I saw, the puck clearly and completely crossed the line. However, the angle was just that – an angle. If you account for the angle and correct for it, then it likely didn’t. But that would require people to have some basic understanding of geometry, and, well, most of humanity lacks that. So…the Islanders won.
Vincent Lecavalier came back from a hand injury, and he played alright despite looking like he wasn’t entirely ready. His faceoff percentage definitely dropped, anyways. So far this season, he’s been around 55-60% in the faceoff circle. Last night he finished with a 42% – which was up from earlier in the game. The first period, he was at 33%.
The first star of the night was unquestionably Sean Bergenheim. Not only did he score a goal, but he had three shots on goal and four hits. Frankly, the guy was everywhere. And who could blame him? The Islanders were his old team, so he wanted to do well against them, I’m sure.
Martin St. Louis scored the other goal of the night, and had a pretty good game as well. He had a team-high six shots on goal. And I thought Victor Hedman had a pretty good night, throwing some hits and making some plays, too.
Dan Ellis looked a little shaky to me at times, however. Don’t get me wrong, he made some beautiful saves, but he didn’t look all that confident at times during the game. But that might be a comfort level thing, too.
The Lightning’s next game is tonight at the Atlanta Thrashers. Game time is 7:30 pm Eastern. Our game thread opens up 30 minutes before every game, so stop in and say hi.
