A short-handed Tampa Bay Lightning team saw their two-game winning streak come to an end as they dropped a 2-1 decision to the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers big guns of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl provided the offense while Stuart Skinner stopped 21-of-22 in the win. At the other end, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 stops, including several on breakaways. Jake Guentzel provided the lone goal for the Lightning, who capitalized on one of the few defensive miscues by Edmonton to briefly tie the game in the second period.
Erik Cernak and Anthony Cirelli were ruled out with their injuries, and the defense struggled at times to contain the high-caliber offensive skills of two of the best players in the league. Both McDavid and Draisaitl ended up with multiple breakaways. Offensively, the Lightning struggled to get shots from dangerous areas (Natural Stat Trick credited them with just 7 on the night at 5v5).
First Period:
19:17 – An early power play for the Oilers as Brandon Hagel ends up in the penalty box. At least it’s just for two minutes today, unlike the four-minute penalty he took in the opening minute against Vancouver in their last game.
16:34 – Emil Lilleberg ends a play abruptly as he buries Brett Kulak along the boards. It was a pretty solid penalty kill for the Lightning to start the game as Edmonton wasn’t able to generate any solid chances.
14:48 – We have McDavid on Vasilevsky! Vasy with the big save on the one-on-one after McDavid splits the defense. Victor Hedman and Darren Raddysh are split wide at the blue line, and Hedman’s shot is knocked down in front of the net giving McDavid a clean line to the net. Vasilevskiy does an excellent job of getting his left skate to the post and keeps his pad along the ice to deny the chance.
14:00 – Luke Glendening and Cam Atkinson with the two best chances for the Lightning so far as Skinner fights off a couple of point-blank chances from the fourth line.
12:35 – Mattias Ekholm blasts one from the boards and beats Vasilevskiy on the short side, but the Lightning are challenging for offsides.
12:35 – No goal! The play was ruled off-side after a quick review.
8:27 – Darnell Nurse tries to slide a puck past Vasilevskiy on the short side, but the goalie is there to freeze the puck and bail out his skaters who had been on the ice for over 90 seconds. The third line chased the puck a bit after a clearing attempt took a bad bounce allowing Edmonton to keep possession. To their credit, they kept the pressure to the outside.
5:20 – Brayden Point motors into the zone drawing a penalty from Jeff Skinner. The Lightning will roll out their power play after the TV timeout. They need to get some shots on net and having an extra skater should help out with that.
4:51 – Hedman bangs one on net and the rebound hops over Jake Guentzel’s stick. Jake was looking at a tap-in if the puck had behaved itself.
2:29 – McDavid kicks it into McDavid gear as he blows by Zemgus Girgensons and J.J. Moser who can only wave their sticks at him as he flies by. He doesn’t miss this time as he beats Vasilevskiy top shelf on the glove side. Connor McDavid (Leon Draisaitl, Brett Kulak) 1-0 Oilers
0:41 – Nick Paul backs in front of the net to get a shot off, but Skinner cuts down his angle to make the save. One of the few times the Lightning are able to get into a dangerous spot this period.
Second Period:
17:20 – Mikey Eyssimont whistles one wide on a turnaround shot. The third and fourth lines have had the best chances so far tonight, but again, not a lot of second chance opportunities so far.
14:06 – The game is getting a little track meet-ish, and that favors the Oilers a bit. Pretty sure this would be one of the games Coach Cooper would like to keep boring. If it starts going end-to-end, Edmonton has the better finishers.
11:47 – Nikita Kucherov rips one on net, but the stop is made. It was good to see him take the shot, the top line has been passing up shooting opportunities so far tonight. That allows the Edmonton defense a chance to get into position to knock down or block shots (Natural Stat Trick has them with 7 blocked shots already).
9:58 – Jake Guentzel finds the back of the net! Kucherov collects a loose puck (he seemed surprised to get it with so much open space) and centers a pass to Guentzel who wires it past Skinner from the top of the circles. Jake Guentzel (Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point) 1-1
8:02 – Leon Draisaitl gets his breakaway chance. After making the initial stop, Vasilevskiy sweeps the loose puck right into Hedman’s shin pads. The puck ricochets back into the net. A bad break set up by a bad play at the blue line. Leon Draisaitl (unassisted) 2-1 Edmonton
Leon Draisaitl is the first player to reach 20 goals this season! Andrei Vasilevskiy makes a mistake and banks the rebound off Victor Hedman into his own net. #LetsGoOilers 📹: Sportsnet | NHL
— The Oil Rig (@oilrigedm.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 10:50 PM
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6:28 – The one drawback of the Hedman/Raddysh pairing has always been their spacing. They just allow too much space in the middle of the ice. It was a problem last year, and it’s been a problem tonight.Granted, on the Draisaitl goal, it was Perbix on the ice with Hedman, but the initial point still stands.
3:51 – A turnover at the blue line leads to Draisaitl getting behind the defense again. Vasilevskiy with another solid save to keep it 2-1. It does look like Perbix has moved up to play with Hedman with Raddysh and Lilleberg together.
0:00 – It’s 2-1 after two periods thanks largely to Andrei Vasilevskiy. We saw a little more offensive life from the Lightning in that period, but a couple of defensive gaffes have cost the Bolts. Tampa Bay has to be crisper with their passing in every zone. Too many passes are not finding their target tonight.
Third Period:
17:32 – Kucherov gets a step on the defense and it looks like he tried to slide it five-hole, but the puck doesn’t go in. Upon further review, yup, he tried the Kucherov move and Skinner wasn’t fooled.
12:37 – A little flurry of activity for the Lightning, but Skinner stops Ryan McDonagh’s redirection in front of the net. One of the few times in the third period where the Lightning were able to sustain pressure.
11:56 – Mitchell Chaffee goes for a high-sticking call. Needless to say, it’s a big penalty kill for the Lightning. It starts with a big save by Vasilevskiy on McDavid.
5:27 – The Lightning are getting a little pressure, but Edmonton is keeping the front of their net clean. A couple of blocked shots blunt the Lightning’s advances. The home team has been really good at controlling the neutral zone as well. Almost every time the Lightning have left their zone with any type of speed, there have been at least two Oilers back to defend.
2:37 – The Oilers ice it and Vasilevskiy glides to the bench. He’ll be out of the net as the Lightning take the face-off in the Edmonton zone.
2:14 – Hedman wrists one on net. Skinner had a a pretty clear look at it as he gloves it down.
1:42 – Hedman enters the zone and is tripped up by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The plot thickens as the Lightning will have a 6-on-4 advantage once Vasilevskiy leaves the ice.
0:08.6 – The puck is in the net, but it looks like it was played with a high stick by Nick Paul. The officials are meeting and will review the call of no goal.
0:08.6 – The call is confirmed as no goal and the face-off is outside the offensive zone. The puck is won back into the zone, but Edmonton is able to run the clock out. It’s a 2-1 loss for the Bolts.
The Charts:
The Lines:
#GoBolts lines tonight against Edmonton without Cernak, Cirelli: Guentzel-Point-Kucherov Hagel-Paul-Chaffee Goncalves-Geekie-Atkinson Girgensons-Glendening-Eyssimont Hedman-Raddysh McDonagh-Moser Lilleberg-Perbix Vasy starts.
— Benjamin Pierce (@boltsben.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 8:53 PM
The Morning Skate
The Lightning had an optional morning skate with about 10 skaters showing up to twirl around on the ice. Erik Cernak and Anthony Cirelli were not among those skating with the rest of the team. The Bolts did recall Steven Santini, but they could go 12-6 with Nick Perbix filling in for Cernak.
Some notes about the game tonight!
- Brayden Point is at 99 power-play goals. Only two other Lightning players have hit the 100-goal mark on special teams.
- Andrei Vasilevskiy is playing in game number 499.
- Victor Hedman is 2 goals short of passing Tyler Johnson for seventh-most in team history.
- Vasilevskiy is 6-3-0 in his career against the Oilers.
Jon Cooper’s post-practice interview
Conor Geekie post-practice
Emil Lilleberg post-practice
