By Michael Wax
For the first time this season, the Tampa Bay Lightning saw the loss column as they fell to the Ottawa Senators 5-4 on Saturday afternoon.
Here are three things we saw from the loss:
The Bogeyland
If you were thinking during this game that the Lightning had a very difficult time beating the Ottawa Senators in Ottawa, you’d be more than correct.
After today’s loss, the Lightning dropped to 17-31-0-5 all-time against the Senators at the Canadian Tire Center, their 3rd-worst points percentage (.375) of any eastern conference home arena ever (min. 35 games).
Coupled with a propensity to not play to their standard during afternoon games, you have a recipe for disaster. Though the Lightning kept this one close for most of the game, they couldn’t find that extra gear to get them over their Bogeyman.
Special Teams.
Most of the time in the NHL, you can win a game if one of your special teams is working well, even if the other isn’t. If you have a mediocre power play, you should be fine if your penalty kill isn’t allowing goals. If your penalty kill isn’t fantastic, you should be fine if your power play gives you goals at the main advantage. Unfortunately, this game saw neither for the Lightning.
The penalty kill went 3/5 against the Senators, tasked with killing an early 5-on-3 before ultimately surrendering a first-period power-play goal and a second-period power-play goal. While some of the calls against were questionable, to say the least (Perbix’s hold, Cirelli’s trip), the penalty kill had a tough time clearing the puck out of the zone, resulting in tired skaters and way too many opportunities for the Sens.
On the flip side, the power-play wasn’t any better. Going 0/3 and allowing a game-winning shorthanded goal is never a recipe for success. While they have connected on some power-play opportunities so far, the way they structure their units has been nothing short of confusing since the departure of Steven Stamkos. Despite his hard slap shot, no team sees Darren Raddysh as a justifiable threat on that top power-play unit, making it very easy for them to defend the top power-play. The Lightning also has a propensity to lose the opening draw on the power play and take forever to find a seam into the zone and set it up properly.
While the penalty kill will probably reset itself, the Lightning's power play has been abysmal through four games. It remains to be seen if this is due to personnel or strategy, or maybe a combination of both, but the Lightning need to try something new.
Sophomore Surprise
In the last piece, there was a mention of how the depth of the Lightning was going to need to step up in a big way. One guy, in particular, showed up in a big way for the depth of this game.
In Mitchell Chaffee’s second NHL season, he’s already shown a little more to his game than he did in his rookie year. While not putting up the points in the first three games, he was generating chances for himself and his aligned mate, and things came full circle against Ottawa. He was consistently making the right place, setting up scoring chances, and just waiting for that moment when the puck would find the back of the net.
In a bit of a broken play, Nick Perbix saw himself as the one to chase down the park in the Ottawa zone. As he spun, Chaffee found enough space between him, the defender, and the goalie to receive the pass and take the shot, beating Anton Forsberg between his legs to bring the Lightning back within one.
Chaffee, by all intense and purposes, was one of the better forwards for the lightning in this one by the advanced metrics as well:
The Lightning’s depth must continue to be a driving force to help out their big stars. Hopefully, Chaffee, who I predicted to hit 20 goals this year, can be the leading man in that driving force.
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