Tampa Bay Lightning game on Saturday had a Forrest Gump feel

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
November 18, 2017

TAMPA – Through the first 20 games of the regular season, the Tampa Bay Lightning have lived a charmed life.

You might suggest, in some ways, it’s been a Forrest Gump-esque start, winning 15 of the opening 19 games. Everything the Lightning have done through the first-quarter of the season has, for the most part, turned in to a success.

But sometimes, just like Forrest Gump making his marathon run, you step in something less than desirable.

”What’s the old bumper sticker say in Forrest Gump?’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “That stuff happens.’’

It happened to Tampa Bay on Saturday as the New York Islanders raced out to a big lead and held on for a 5-3 victory, handing the Lightning just the third regulation loss of the year and first since Oct. 28.

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The Lightning stepped in to it early. They came out looking slow, flat, like they weren’t ready to take on the strong forecheck and speed of the Islanders.

And when you see a player like Brayden Point commit a mistake on the opening shift of the game, losing a puck to John Tavares along the wall just inside the blue line, it sets the wrong tone. That’s exactly what happened and the end result was a New York goal 51 seconds in to the game, the result of the Lightning being hemmed in their own zone for an additional 24 seconds, the amount of time it took after Point lost the puck for New York to open the scoring.

”We know they are a good team, we pre-scouted them, we know they check hard and how they play,’’ Point said. “I think we all just come out with a little lull. Myself, I turn the puck over on the first goal on the first shift, so that cost us.’’

Added Ondrej Palat: “The first period wasn’t good for us, obviously, our line against Tavares line, we didn’t do our job.’’

It just had that feel for a good portion of the game. Passes weren’t connecting. Pucks bounced over sticks. Turnovers fed right in to odd-man chances.

When you see Nikita Kucherov twice try to make a stick-handling move, only to have the puck stick to the ice and not to his blade, you just started to get the sense it was going to be one of those kind of nights.

” We were off. It just felt off,’’ Cooper said. “We didn’t start well and you’ve got to give the Islanders a little bit of credit. They came in here to win a hockey game.’’

New York showed that from the start. They were skating from the opening shift, putting pressure on the puck, forcing the Lightning to make quick decisions, which too often ended up being the wrong ones. It was like the Islanders knew they had to come in skating fast for fear of being outclassed while Tampa Bay gave the appearance they weren’t ready for how New York was going to play.

But with the start the Lightning are off to, they have to expect that every game is like a measuring stick for the other team. Opponents are going to come at Tampa Bay with what their best effort every night.

”Everybody is going to bring their A game in this building,’’ right wing Yanni Gourde said. “We have to expect that and have a good start and slow them down, make them realize the Tampa Bay Lightning are ready to play and we are going to play like that for 60 minutes. That’s been our success, we had unreal starts every game since the beginning of the year and I think we can’t take that for granted. We have to keep going, keep building that way and start the right way.’’

Tampa Bay certainly finished strong.

After falling down 4-0 just over a minute in to the third, Gourde and Palat scored 13 seconds apart to cut the lead to 4-2 at 3:26 in the final period. Gourde added his second of the game with 3:16 left to make the ending have meaning, but Tavares scored in to an empty net with 22 seconds left to squash the late rally.

”We are pleased with the effort in the third period but that’s not really our goal, we need to play 60 minutes,’’ Gourde said. “Tonight we didn’t. There is no excuse for that, we just need to be prepared to play 60 every night. Every team in this league are very good and we know that, we have to be ready to start right off from the first puck drop.’’

Yeah, it happens.

Postgame notes: Andrei Vasilevskiy suffered his first regulation loss since Oct. 7. His streak of 14 consecutive games without a regulation loss come to an end. … The duo of Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov were held off the scoresheet for just the third time this season. … Gourde had his second career multi-goal game. … Slater Koekkoek appeared in his 50th career game. … Tampa Bay scratched Andrej Sustr and Gabriel Dumont. … The Lightning had won seven consecutive games against the Islanders, including the playoffs. Tampa Bay swept the regular season series last year by a combined score of 14-2. … The team will be off until Wednesday against the Chicago Blackhawks at home.

My three stars:
1.Islanders C John Tavares – Goal, three points, forced turnovers

2.Islanders RW Anders Lee – Two goals, three shots

3. Lightning RW Yanni Gourde – Two goals, four shots

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