Morning After Thoughts will be an ongoing series throughout the playoffs where I can ramble on about the most recent Lightning playoff game. Sometimes it will be structured. Sometimes it will just be a stream of consciousness. Hopefully, I’ll be able to capture what many Lightning fans are thinking, but also provide some perspective after having time to adjust back to normal after a game, take a breath, and take a deeper look at the numbers.
The Lightning fell 3-2 in overtime to the Florida Panthers in Game Two of the series. The Lightning have had a pretty abysmal record in playoff overtime games the last couple of playoffs and it continued here. It only took a few minutes for Carter Verhaeghe to cut across the net and backhand the puck in over a down and out Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The problems started for the Lightning long before that. They once again gave up the opening goal of the game. Unlike Game One, they weren’t able to answer back in the first period and instead gave up a second goal to go down 2-0. The Lightning did good work in the second period to even the game up at 2-2 and had a couple of opportunities to go up 3-2 after that, particularly on a shot by Matt Dumba on a wide open cage that Sergei Bobrovsky somehow got back across to get just enough of the puck with his arm to keep it out.
Hockey is often a game of inches and in that case it was fractions of an inch.
Both goaltenders put up excellent performances once again. However, one was just a little bit better than the other, though he was also less tested than the other. The Lightning once again struggled to get the puck on net. While the start of the game was better than the last, the Lightning did nothing with their early control of the puck and finished the first period with just three shots on goal. The struggles with hitting the net also continued from game one throughout this game with 10 of their 25 unblocked shot attempts missing the net at 5v5.
As I said in the Morning After Thoughts for Game One, the goal when you’re starting a series on the road is to come back 1-1. The Lightning had every opportunity in game two to do that after they got it tied up. They just couldn’t find the go-ahead goal. It’s now been 122 minutes and 59 seconds of this series that the Lightning have either been tied or behind. They’ve yet to hold a lead. And because of that, they find themselves behind the 8-ball, down 2-0 in the series.
That is going to have to change in Game Three. The Lightning will be able to choose the match-ups, and they’re going to have to make the most of it. The big guns are going to have to carry the load and the depth players are going to have to find more ways to contribute on the board. Thus far, the Lightning’s four goals have come from Steven Stamkos (2), Brayden Point, and Brandon Hagel. Two of the four goals have come on the power play with one of those being during a 6-4 with the net empty.
Intensity and sustained focus should be the message from the coaching staff for Game Three. The crowd at Amalie Arena is sure to be rocking. The team needs to feed off that energy, they need to score quick, and they need to keep that intensity up for a full 60 minutes. I hate to label a Game Three as Do-Or-Die, but it pretty much is. If you go down 3-0 in the series, it’s an extremely steep hill to climb and would require two wins down in Sunrise to advance to the next round. Make it 2-1 and then make it 2-2, and you’re right in the series and have turned it into a 3-game series where you only need to win one in Sunrise, which you always had to get to win the series.
Time to put up or shut up. Time for Kucherov and Point to be the force they can be at 5v5 and find the back of the net. Time for the Eyssimont-Paul-Chaffee line to cash in on some opportunities. Time for the defense to shut things down and contribute to the offense. Time for everyone to step up and do more. Time to get the first win of this series and keep the hopes alive.
Let’s Go Bolts!
