By Michael Wax
The Tampa Bay Lightning saw their eight-game win streak snapped 2-1 at the hands of the Florida Panthers on Monday night.
Here are three things we saw from the loss:
Blank
For all intents and purposes, this was the worst performance of the Lightning's power play in years.
The Lightning man advantage went 0/6, a very telling number in a game only decided by one goal. While the Bolts have had several games this season where they have had zero goals on five opportunities, they never had a game where they went 0/7 until tonight.
Many of their power plays looked disorganized and sloppy, allowing the Panthers to easily clear any sort of opportunity. The opportunities that the Lightning did get, Sergei Bobrovsky was there and made it look relatively easy. Whether this was due to where the Lightning were shooting or great position goal goaltending is up for the week. Failing on this many opportunities in such a close game, and a game that meant so much for the Lightning in their division placement, has to sting.
4 Vacations
The Four Nations break provided much-needed rest for many players on the Lightning's roster. Andrei Vasilevskiy, for example, has come back from the break looking the best he has in years. However, some players who participated in the Four Nations tournament struggled upon returning to NHL action.
Captain Victor Hedman has seemingly been off his game since returning from the tournament, and the same goes for Anthony Cirelli. Jake Guentzel, who entered the tournament second on the Lightning in goals, hasn’t scored in five games and has only two points since returning. It’s a small sample size, but many of these players were brought to the tournament because of career years. While the rust doesn’t seem to have affected either Brandon Hagel or Brayden Point, these three in particular may have benefited more from a vacation than from attending a two-week-long tournament.
Cat's House
As mentioned earlier, Andrei Vasilevskiy has put together a tremendous run that has helped the Lightning skyrocket in the standings recently. Even though the win streak may have come to an end, Vasilevskiy delivered another impressive performance to keep the Lightning in the game.
The Big Cat stopped 27/29 Panther shots, resulting in a save percentage over .930. Somehow, it was Vasilevskiy‘s worst game since the start of the Four Nations break. Vasilevskiy is on another extraordinary run, and the Lightning have certainly benefited, but they’ll need to improve in front of a potentially returning Jonas Johanson tomorrow against Columbus.
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