A fast-paced final 10 minutes of hockey couldn’t offset a groggy start for the Tampa Bay Lightning in Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
Breakaways and odd man rushes were available for the home team at Rogers Place in Edmonton, particularly early—the Oilers opened the scoring with 2:29 left in the first period on a breakaway for one of the league’s best players.
Oilers forward Connor McDavid took a pass at center ice from Leon Draisaitl and flew down the middle of the ice, splitting the Tampa Bay defenders and roofing the puck into the top left corner of the net.
McDavid had another breakaway earlier in the period, and Draisaitl had a pair of lone-man breaks in the game, too. Both McDavid and Draisaitl are in the NHL top ten for scoring this season.
“We were giving ‘em to them. That was tough,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of the rushes. “We haven’t been doing that of late. I think we gave up four breakaways in the first 20 minutes. It’s unacceptable, and that’s how you walk away with no points in a hockey game.”
Tampa Bay’s top line evened the game 1-1 midway through the second period on a night the Lightning were without forward Anthony Cirelli and defenseman Erik Cernak due to injuries.
Forward Nikita Kucherov drove the puck down the right side of the offensive zone all the way to the goal-line before dishing a backhand pass to Jake Guentzel in the high slot. Guentzel dragged the puck to shoot through a screen, beating Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner on the blocker side to make it 1-1 with 9:58 to play in the second period.
Guentzel now has a goal in four straight games.
Draisaitl was denied on a breakaway by Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy shortly after the Guentzel goal, but Edmonton was given a second chance on yet another long free skate for Draisaitl moments later.
The breakaway for Draisaitl was stopped by Vasilevskiy 1:56 after the Guentzel goal, but a clearing attempt deflected off a Tampa Bay player and into the net to give the lead back to Edmonton.
Tampa Bay defenseman JJ Moser said while the puck took an unfortunate bounce, Tuesday’s loss was more about defending than bad puck luck.
“I think we gave up way too many odd-mans to put it on that (bad bounce)…Probably unlucky how it turned out,” Moser said, “but I think we had more in that game.”
The goal closed the scoring for a 2-1 Edmonton win. The Lightning are now 14-10-2 this season.
Tampa Bay pushed in the third period, as Kucherov was denied on a breakaway of his own when he attempted his ‘no-move’ deke that has produced shootout goals in the past.
What looked to be the tying goal with 8.6 seconds remaining in the game was immediately waved off due to the puck being played with a high-stick, sealing the win for Edmonton.
Defenseman Emil Lilleberg said the Lightning need to play the way they did in the final 10 minutes across the entire game, calling the team’s play “not good enough”.
He wasn’t alone in that thinking. Multiple members of the Lightning said Tuesday was a missed opportunity to earn standings points.
“We pushed in the third period. We had our looks, we did, and they just didn’t go in. We held the Edmonton Oilers to 43 shot attempts. That’s something that you think, OK you’re kind of doing the right thing,” Cooper said.
“But It was one of those nights. When you play 82 of these you gotta find ways to sneak some points out of them when you just don’t have it. Tonight we didn’t. I didn’t know if they had it either. That’s what just kind of makes it sting a bit is because we were there, there were some points for the taking, we just couldn’t grasp ‘em.”
Draisaitl led all skaters with a goal and an assist, while Vasilevskiy made 24 saves. Skinner got the win with a 21-save night.
The Lightning will look to get back in the win column on Thursday when they visit the Calgary Flames, who are 14-10-5 this season.
Ben’s Three Stars:
- Leon Draisaitl, EDM (1 G, 1 A)
- Stuart Skinner, EDM (21 saves)
- Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL (24 saves)
