By Jake Ricker
The Lightning took on the Toronto Maple Leafs in game three of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. With the Series tied up 1-1 the Lightning looked to get a huge win now on home ice. Victor Hedman would return to the lineup after missing game two. Here is what we noticed from the overtime loss.
Raddysh
While Victor Hedman was back in the lineup, the Lightning were still without Eric Cernak, who is one of the team's top defenders. With so many injuries on defense and the trades of players like Ryan McDonough at the beginning of the season, the Lightning needed some players to step up. Enter Nick Perbix and Darren Raddysh. Both of the young defenders have had to grow up quickly, especially in the postseason.
Darren Raddysh was especially good last night. Raddysh finished the game with a goal, five shots, and four hits. Raddysh was able to make some great defensive plays while also being all over the ice offensively. The young defenseman has a wicked shot that he used to score his first goal of the postseason, which gave the Lightning their first lead of the game. Raddysh played fast physical and smart, which is exactly what the Lightning needed.
Raddysh will only get better as he gets more experience, and if the first few games are any sign of what's to come, the Lightning are in a great spot defensively. Now if only they could work on that net-front presence.
Dominating Second
After a back-and-forth first period, one team needed to take control if they wanted a good shot at winning this game. That is exactly what the Lightning did. The Lightning controlled much of the second with multiple extended shifts in the offensive zone. They were jumping on rebounds, winning puck battles, and getting pucks on the net. The only issue for the Lightning was they were not able to get one of their shots to end up in the back of the net.
The Bolts just kept on pushing, though, and as mentioned before, Darren Raddysh was eventually able to capitalize, giving the Lightning a 3-2 lead. This was the ideal period and exactly what the Lightning want to repeat moving forward. They have been the better team 5-on-5 in this series, and if they can capitalize on their chances, they should have no issues tying up the series in game four.
Point Injury/Officiating
When Brayden Point was pushed hard into the boards, things looked grim as Point was in serious pain and could not get back to the bench. Kucherov was furious and tackled Rielly to the ice. Chaos then ensued with multiple fights. Rielly was originally given a 5-minute major that would be reviewed while Point was helped off the ice.
After watching the hit multiple times, it is understandable that the officials didn't want to call a 5-minute major. It was a play that happened at high speed and made worse as Point was already low to the ice. But not giving any penalty to Rielly is baffling. Both players were moving toward the boards, with Rielly behind Point, and he clearly shoves Point over, right in the corner. This is interference at the lowest level.
To make things worse, the Lightning were given an extra two minutes and sent to the penalty kill. There are ZERO reasons a team's player should go down on a bad hit and receive an extra two minutes. Luckily (and quite honestly surprisingly), Point was able to come back and avoid serious injury.
Things didn't get better with the officials after Point had thought he had given the Lightning a two-goal lead until the goal was waved off and confirmed to be no goal after review. The Puck was clearly not covered and should have been a goal. The officials deemed that the puck was covered when in reality, it was just out of view.
You can argue whether or not the whistle blew before the puck had gone in, but the puck was loose, and the whistle should have never blown. But as Cooper noted after the game, this is not why the Lightning lost, although it certainly helped.
Final Thoughts
The Lightning played a great second period and a great overtime, but all it took was one shot for Toronto to come away as the winner. If the Lightning can play like they did in the second, they should have no issues winning game four. They were the better team in this game, but they let their emotions get the better of them after the point injury.
They started to focus more on their hits than defense, getting away from their game which they had executed beautifully in the second. Then with under a minute to go, the Leafs won a net-front battle and tied the game late.
At the end of the day, there were a lot of frustrating things in this game, but the Lightning will have to have a short-term memory and get set for a pivotal game four.
Three Stars
Media’s three stars
1. Morgan Rielly (1G)
2. Brandon Hagel (1G,1A)
3. Darren Raddysh (1G)
Our three stars
1. Brandon Hagel (1G,1A)
2. Ryan O'Reilly (1G,2A)
3. Darren Raddysh (1G)
The Lightning's next game will be against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday, April 24th, at 7:30 PM ET.
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