By Michael Wax
On the eve of Halloween, the Lightning put up a haunting performance defensively and fell behind 3-1 before clawing their way back to force OT. Another poor performence in OT saw the Lightning fall to 0-3 in OT now 4-2-3 on the season. Here are how the lines looked.
ABB-Point-Kucherov
Stamkos-Paul-Hagel
Jeannot-Cirelli-Merela
Sheary-Glendening-Eyssimont
Hedman-Cernak
Sergachev-Perbix
Fleury-Raddysh
Johansson
Here are the biggest takeaways from the Lightning's 4-3 OT loss:
Chilling Defense
Coming into this one, the Lightning had played much better defense in their past two games. With shutouts against both Carolina and San Jose, it looked like the effort had turned a corner. Against a Kraken team struggling to maintain any semblance of offense this year, the Lightning made it far too easy on them.
Flubbed passes the entire night made Seattle's transition offense have way too many opportunities on Jonas Johansson, and the no-look spin passes were just as frequent and just as costly. With Johansson's rebound control in a poor state in this one, it just seemed like a recipe for disaster in how to repay a goalie who has done so much for you so far this season.
Scary Good
It looks like Alex Barré-Boulet has found his place. The 26-year-old had another goal, and was one of the better players on the ice both in terms of eye test and game score (ABB finished second among Lightning skaters and sixth overall)
With his power-play goal in the second, we saw something that ABB's continued to work on throughout his time on the main roster: crashing the front of the net and waiting for a pass/loose puck. He got one, and made no mistake with an open net.
Barré-Boulet also drew another penalty, taking a high-stick to the face in the second period. Once again, the defense leaves much to be desired. However, judging by the scorecard and all of the other dark blue to the left above, this is a game the Lightning will certainly take from ABB.
Ghost of OT's Past
The Lightning are now 0-3 in OT this season, and have just been utterly dominated in the extra frame. The Bolts have been out-attempted 12-4 in OTs, and their 12.5 Corsi For % (shot attempts at even strength) is the second-worst among team who have made it to overtime this season (31/32 have).
Once again, losing the opening face-off and having Luke Glendening stuck out there for much of OT was a big problem for a team that has very poor extra frame puck possession statistics.
Jon Cooper mentioned after the Toronto OT loss that things would have to change either personal-wise or scheme-wise. Would not be surprised to see both next time.
Final Thoughts
Against a poor Seattle team, you want to take care of your easy matchups. The Lightning had heart and battled back, but ultimately lost a game they should've won. Hopefully Thursday's game against a struggling Columbus team is another turnaround.
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