Lightning run out of gas as road trip ends

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
November 21, 2016

Tampa Bay rolled in to Music City riding high on a four-game winning streak.

But like a patron walking out of a honky-tonk blues concert, the Lightning were left feeling down on the way out.

Nashville proved too much for Tampa Bay to handle at the end of a five-game road trip as the Predators beat the Lightning 3-1 at Bridgestone Arena, where Tampa Bay is winless in the past six trips. The last victory in Nashville came on Feb. 7, 2008, in an overtime victory.

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P.K. Subban scored a pair of goals for Nashville while Pekka Rinne stopped 24 shots for the Predators.

Ben Bishop stopped 27 shots for Tampa Bay while Tyler Johnson spoiled Rinne’s shutout bid with a power play goal with 50 seconds remaining in the game.

Tampa Bay came in to the game on its longest winning streak of the season, having won the first four games on the eight-day road trip. But with injuries taking a toll, coming off a physical game in Philadelphia two days earlier, finding enough energy to keep the streak alive proved too much of a task to muster.

“We just looked like a tired group,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “That was a winnable hockey game for us and we let it slip.’’

It was Nashville that proved to be slippery, using speed to back up the Lighting defense and establish a strong forecheck. The end result was pressure put on by the Predators on a consistent basis. Though the shots were relatively close – a 10-to-8 advantage for Nashville, which also had a 18-14 advantage in shot attempts – the better quality scoring chances heavily favored the Predators. When Viktor Arvidsson got a tip on a pass from Roman Jossi from a side angle to deflect the puck past Bishop at 4:25, the uphill climb for Tampa Bay never gained traction.

“It was just one of those games that we needed to get the lead,’’ Cooper said. “And that was it. And we didn’t get it. So as of right then, we were chasing a little bit.’’

Subban would score twice in the second period, first on the power play at 9:55 and then an even strength goal at 12:35, which came 12 seconds after another power play expired.

From that point on, the game started to get chippy on both sides, unusual for two teams that face each other just twice during the regular season; they did square off twice in the preseason.

It started early in the third when Arvidsson was called for cross checking Vladislav Namestnikov in to the boards at 7:54, a call which could easily have been a five-minute boarding call after Namestnikov came up with a bloody face even after he was able to brace himself for the collision with the wall by getting his hands up.

A short time later J.T. Brown delivered a huge hit on Jossi behind the net, catching Jossi with his head down, delivering a blow that sent Jossi reeling backwards on a clean check that sparked a fracas in the Nashville end.

Some of those hard hits continued for much of the remainder of the period, but came to a boil with 1:33 left in the game. With Nashville on a power play, Ryan Ellis made a bee line for Brown near the left circle, delivering a blow to the back of Brown’s head. Brown immediately jumped on Ellis and began throwing punches with Ellis down on the ice. Brown was still incensed after the two were separated, shouting at Ellis while being restrained by the linesman.

Cooper was asked after if he felt the game got a little out of control.

“But who let it get out of control?’’ he said.

Postgame notes: D Anton Stralman missed his fifth consecutive game with an undisclosed upper-body injury, but did take part in the morning skate wearing a red no-contact jersey. … RW Erik Condra was called up from Syracuse of the American Hockey League but did not dress. … C Brian Boyle returned to the lineup after missing the previous game with injury. … D Victor Hedman appeared in his 490th career game, tying Cory Sarich for sixth on the all-time franchise list. … Hedman also recorded his 243rd career point, tying Pavel Kubina for 10th on the franchise all-time scoring list. … Tampa Bay fell to 0-7 this season when scoring two-or-fewer goals.

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