Very little went right for the Tampa Bay Lightning in their game one 6-2 loss to the Florida Panthers Tuesday night.
The Lightning were outplayed in every aspect and were no match for Florida’s physicality. Anthony Cirelli and Erik Cernak were both banged up in the loss to the Panthers.
The players on the ice had barely broken a sweat before Sam Bennett gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead. It was all downhill for the Lightning after that, although Jake Guentzel would tie it at one just ten minutes later.
Sam Reinhart would score a goal with under a minute to play to put the Panthers up 2-1 after one period. The Panthers broke it wide open in the second period, scoring three goals to take a 5-2 lead after two periods. That was, for all intents and purposes, the game.
To say the game was a disappointment would be the understatement of the year. The Lightning let the Panthers have their way with them in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy. We saw this kind of play from the Lightning in their losses to Toronto and Detroit to wrap up the regular season.
The Lightning trail in the series 1-0 and have lost the home-ice advantage they worked so hard to earn in the final month of the season. Game two of this series will be played in Tampa on Thursday night, and the Lightning must win it to stay in the Series.
You cannot go to South Florida down 0-2 to the defending Stanley Cup Champions.
If the Lightning are to win this series, they must start with these three things.
The stars on the Lightning have to show up.
Nikita Kucherov, who many think should win the MVP, has not scored a goal in eleven playoff games.
Nathan MacKinnon, the media writers’ consensus MVP, has three goals and one assist in two playoff games.
Superstar players show up in big spots, and Kucherov has failed to do that.
Andrei Vasileviskiy has to be better.
Granted, many of the goals that went in the net for Florida on Monday Night were not directly on Vasilevskiy.
However, this was one of Vasilevskiy’s worst outings in a long while. If this team has any chance to advance in the playoffs, Vasilevskiy has to get back to the way he played earlier in the season.
Ryan McDonagh talked about the poor defensive effort in front of Vasilevskiy. “You’ve got guys on the doorstep putting it in, rebounds, open nets, and stuff, so we’ve got to do a better job in front there, let him see the puck first and foremost, clear the front of the net. That’s a big emphasis here against this team, and we need to be better there.”
Hit somebody.
Tuesday night, it looked like a bunch of men playing amongst boys as the Panthers had their way physically with the Lightning.
Someone has to step up on this Lightning team and be the physical presence it lacks right now.
The Lightning are a finesse team built for success in the regular season. The Panthers, with their roster, are built more for success in the postseason than in the regular season.
Ryan Mcdonagh also bemoaned that the Lightning did not have the start they wanted. “It’s definitely a salty feeling in here. And we didn’t have a great start to this series like we talked about. But it’s a series here, and we know we can be better, and we’ve got another level, and we’ll find a way to get to that.”
The Lightning were ranked third in scoring defense in the regular season. They allowed six goals to the Panthers.
The Lightning led the NHL in scoring during the regular season and could only get two pucks past Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
The Panthers’ penalty kill was the sixth-best in the NHL during the regular season, but it allowed the Panthers to score on all three power-play attempts.
The Lightning also lost the faceoff battle to the Panthers 34-26.
Panthers Coach Paul Maurice knows that this game does not indicate how the series will go. “There isn’t an established identity to this series yet. Getting into the second, they lose Cirelli, and the power play clicks; it’s an unusual game. It will be a complete reset for both teams before the next one.”
The Lightning will have a lot of soul-searching to do in the next two days.
How badly do they want it? Are they willing to do the little things necessary to win the series? Are they willing to match Florida’s physicality?
These questions and much more will be answered Thursday Night at 6:30 when the puck drops for game two.