Lightning filled with false hope in loss to Jets

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
January 3, 2017

TAMPA, Fla. – False hope.

The Lightning filled the building with plenty of it on Tuesday. It was all over the ice.

Same could be said for how Tampa Bay played in the second period – all over the ice. That’s not a compliment.

Even when the Lightning pulled close late in the third period, it was all just false hope.

More efforts like Tuesday’s 6-4 loss to the Winnipeg Jets and the season will end the same way – with false hope.

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The regulation loss to Winnipeg not only prevented the Lightning from pulling in to a playoff position – a win would have tied Tampa Bay with Boston for the third spot in the Atlantic Division – the Toronto Maple Leafs caught the Lightning in points and have two games in hand.

“It was men against boys after the first period,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “We’ve been able to accumulate some points here at home and then we come out and do everything we wanted to do in the first period except get the lead. Then to just come out the way we did . . . we just didn’t defend, we thought about one net only and once you do that, that’s it for you.”

The first period the Lightning looked alive. They had jump. They were pressing the issue. (Ignore those turnovers that led to penalties in the opening 20 minutes, we’ll get to that.). Fueled by three broken power play chances, including 1:05 of a 4-on-3 chance, Tampa Bay had the first eight shots on goal. Connor Hellebuyck kept the game scoreless.

Then, the Jets scored on their first shot of the game, a power play chance when Mark Scheifele redirected a pass from Patrick Laine that squeezed under Andrei Vasilevskiy at 7:25.

Fine, no big deal. The Lightning have a penchant for giving up the first goal – especially at home – and not be bothered by it. They were playing well, probably deserved to get the lead but didn’t, they can shrug that off.

But it was false hope.

Even when Tampa Bay came out to start the second and tied the game on Matthew Peca’s first career NHL goal 3:43 in to the period, wiring a wrist shot from the right circle dot to the far corner that popped in and out of the net. At the time, shots were 21-8 in favor of the Lightning.

False hope sprung to life.

On the very next shift, the Jets roared and the Lightning fizzled. Nikolaj Ehlers got behind the Lightning defense for a partial breakaway and forced Nikita Kucherov to take what can only be described as an intentional penalty, hooking Ehlers around the wrists to take away a scoring chance.

Ehlers was awarded a penalty shot and converted to regain the lead for Winnipeg 47 seconds after Peca’s goal. Then 49 seconds after Ehlers goal, the Lightning were pinned in and the Jets trounced as Jacob Trouba took a feed from Matthieu Perrault down the slot and beat Vasilevskiy for a 3-1 lead.

The Lightning had no response.

“Our second wasn’t anywhere good enough,” said Ryan Callahan, back in the lineup after missing 15 games. “Why things didn’t translate from the first to the second, I don’t know. That first ten minutes of the second, we pretty much lose the game right there. We didn’t get much going and it seems that they took over after that penalty shot. We have to respond and we don’t do that.”

“We ended this game in the second period with poor play, it’s as simple as that,” Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman said.

But there was more to come, more of Tampa Bay showing a comeback spirit, but it felt empty. Even after Kucherov notched a pair of power play goals in the third, the second coming with 2:31 left, to pull the Lightning to within a goal.

It proved to be yet another moment of false hope as Patrick Laine – the second overall pick in the 2016 draft – scored in to an empty net with 1:23 left to play.

“It’s tough in this league to score four goals in a game and lose,” Cooper said. “That’s tough and we found a way to do that tonight. We let one slip through our fingers tonight. When you break it down, they played two good periods of hockey and we played one. Usually that means the team playing two is going to win the game.”

The way the season is going, it could all end up in a season filled with expectations that lead to false hope.

Postgame notes: The penalty shot was the first Vasilevskiy faced in his NHL career. … Callahan played 11:20 of ice time in his first game since Nov. 27. … RW Adam Erne made his NHL debut, skating 12:03 of ice time with one shot, four hits and a minus-1 rating. … Kucherov recorded his third multi-goal game of the season and ninth of his career. … D Victor Hedman picked up two more assists and leads the team with 28 this season. … LW Ondrej Palat picked up his third goal since returning from injury but had a rough night with three penalties and one bad giveaway on a first-period power play. … LW Jonathan Drouin was a career worst minus-3.

My three stars:
1.Jets LW Nikolaj Ehlers – Two goals, three points, plus-3.

2.Lightning RW Nikita Kucherov – Two goals, three points, seven shots on goal

3.Jets D Jacob Trouba – Goal, assist, plus-1, seven shot attempts in 25:28 of ice time

Ryan Callahan meets the media after the game

Anton Stralman meets the media after the game

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