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Like a certain Batman villain, Tampa Bay Lightning show two sides in Anaheim

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by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
January 17, 2017


Like a good Batman villain, there were two sides to Tampa Bay’s showing in Anaheim on Tuesday.

On one flip of the coin, praise for the strong effort is well deserved after enduring a physical encounter in Los Angeles the day before and playing the second consecutive day without top defenseman Victor Hedman, still out with an illness.

When the coin flips again, however, it lands on the opposite side, the one that shows the less attractive side. The side where the warts stand out.

All of this coming in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Ducks at Honda Center.

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First, let’s examine the first flip of the coin.

On this side, the Lightning looked like a dominant team. The Ducks had just seven shots through two periods. Tampa Bay held an advantage in shot attempts 64-49. At 5-on-5 play, the disparity was 52-32 in favor of the Lightning, according to Hockeystats.ca.

Everytime you looked up, Tampa Bay had the puck. And most of the time, it was on the stick of Jonthan Drouin, who continues to grow and shine as a dominant player.

In the first period alone, Tampa Bay had two wide open nets to look at, but Nikita Kucherov and Valtteri Filppula both misfired – Kucherov pulling his shot attempt wide while Filppula was not quite able to corral a rolling puck and his shot went just high. Anaheim, meanwhile, had a season low two shots on goal in a period.

All very impressive for a Lightning team that scratched and clawed their way to victory on Monday after registering 41 hits and blocking 20 shots on goal in a physical affair.

When Filppula put Tampa Bay in front at 4:36, the Lightning looked to be well on the way to earning their way to another impressive effort to start a crucial road trip.

But then fate stepped in the way and the coin flipped over to the other side.

After Bishop took a puck off his mask, he quickly shook his head to see if there was any damage to the helmet. Then, as the Lightning appeared to be clearing the zone, Cedric Paquette gave the puck away to Ryan Getzlaf, who quickly turned around and fired the puck on net. Bishop, meanwhile, had inexplicably taking a stride toward the referee in the corner – presumably to mention why he didn’t get a whistle when the puck hit his mask – as if he as in La La Land, leaving the crease as Getzlaf’s shot caromed off the post, slid across the ice and banked in off the opposite post to tie the game 21 seconds after Filppula’s goal to tie the game.

The game was still there for Tampa Bay, and they appeared to have flipped the coin back over as the Ducks still had just nine shots on goal through two periods. Then the penalty kill came up big, killing off three consecutive Anaheim power play chances from the end of the second period and in to the third period.

Ah, but then the coin flipped, once again and the fortunes switched.

It started when Jason Garrison had a shot that was ear-marked for the top corner, but as goaltender John Gibson dropped down, the puck struck the shaft of his stick and cleared out of play.

Then the self-inflicted wounds that have plagued this team so often proved costly once again. On the opening shift of overtime – which did not include Drouin despite his stellar game with a plus-16 Corsi rating, plus-13 at even strength – Tyler Johnson blew a tire in the Anaheim zone while handling the puck. As Johnson got up, he got his stick up in the hands of Cam Fowler for a hooking call.

Off the ensuing faceoff, Paquette took a step toward the wall to push Getzlaf off the puck. But all he did was clear a direct path for Rickard Rakell to cut right to the slot area Paquette just left wide open and left Bishop helpless to stop a shot that Rakell fired right in to the corner for the winning goal four seconds in to the power play.

So, on the one hand, the Lightning gutted out a game, got to overtime and picked up a point while playing a dominant, momentum-building style of game.

But, they also failed to pick up a victory in a game they all but dominated, letting mental mistakes be the difference in the outcome.

Kind of defines the season, some nights it’s a flip of the coin that determines which Tampa Bay team is going to show up.

Postgame notes:. D Anton Stralman recorded his 199th career point. … RW Nikita Kucherov appeared in his 250th career NHL game. … Tampa Bay is winless in the past seven back-to-back games (0-3-4). … The Lightning finished with 25 hits and 18 blocked shots, one game after registering 41 hits and 20 blocked shots in Los Angeles. … With Hedman still out, Tampa Bay called up , who took warmups but was scratched along with RW Joel Vermin. … RW Erik Condra took just 10 shifts and played 6:56 of ice time.

My three stars:
1.Ducks G John Gibson – Stopped 27 shots, 11 in the third period

2.Lightning LW Jonathan Drouin – Dynamic all night, nine shot attempts in 20:33 of ice time

3.Ducks C Ryan Getzlaf – Goal, plus-1, eight shots on goal, 24:09 of ice time, won 10-of-15 faceoffs

Jon Cooper’s media session from Tampa Bay Lightning

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