By Michael Wax
New month, very similar performance. The Lightning put up another very poor start and end to their game against the Blue Jackets, falling 4-2 and snapping their six-game point streak. Here were the lines:
ABB-Point-Kucherov
Stamkos-Paul-Sheary
Jeannot-Cirelli-Hagel
Eyssimont-Glendening-Merela
Hedman-Cernak
Sergachev-Perbix
de Haan-Raddysh
Tomkins
Here are the biggest takeaways from the Lightning's 4-3 OT loss:
Top Pair Troubles
I think it's finally time we admit that the Victor Hedman-Erik Cernak pairing just isn't working. In theory, this paring makes a lot of sense: put your top offensive defenseman with your top defensive defenseman. The sword and the shield, some people might call it.
In practice, this has not worked at all. These two don't have much chemistry, surprising for teammates of six years. Though they aren't the only members of the team to do this, the consistent no-look passing has gotten them into trouble too many times. In the majority of the games, these two have had a negative defensive gamescore, and sometimes have had the worst gamescores on the team. This happened once again in this game:
With the rest of the defense struggling as well, now would be a great time to see what works throughout the lineup.
Sheary Baby
On the other side of the equation, Conor Sheary got his first as a member of the Lightning and played his best game in a blue and white sweater. Being promoted into the top six alongside Stephen Stamkos, Sheary was consistently engaged in play, constantly bringing the puck into the best scoring opportunities possible. This type of play eventually rewarded him, as he was the recipient of the go-ahead goal at the time in the middle of the second period.
With the Lightning buzzing after Steven Stamkos had tied the game, Victor Hedman unleashed a massive slapshot that went over the net. As Stamkos recovered the puck, he wheeled and sent a perfect tape to tape pass onto the stick of Sherry, who had done exactly what he should've done in order to put himself in the scenario: get to the front of the net and wait for the big time talent to do their thing.
It was crucial to see Sheary get on the board, and the lighting are going to need more production out of their biggest off-season signing if they want to contend this year with the slow start of Mikey Eyssimont, Anthony Cirelli, and Waltteri Merelä.
Tommy Boy
It had been a long time since Matt Tomkins had gotten to play for the Lightning. After his NHL debut on October 15 against the Ottawa Senators, Tomkins saw Jonas Johansson get game after game after game. So, it wouldn't be that surprising to see the 29-year-old rookie have a little bit of ruse coming into his second game. Quite the contrary.
Tomkins' best saving night came early on, as his first shot on, that was a breakaway from Johnny Gaudreau. Tompkins was able to stop the former All-Star, a common theme throughout the night. Tomkins would go on to make 24 saves on 27 shots, many of which came from high danger, opportunities or odd man rushes. Tomkins did what he had to do to keep Tampa in the game when they fell behind 3-2, and really wasn't responsible for any of the goals he allowed.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, the Lightning need to win a game like this. After losing to Seattle at home, they were facing a Colombus team that was struggling exponentially this season and fall flat and don't even gain a point. It's still early enough where teams haven't separated themselves in the Atlantic, but they need to bank points like this game in order to stay afloat.
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