By Michael Wax
The Lightning had their worst performance of the season so far, falling behind 5-1 and ultimately losing 5-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Here are three things we saw from the loss:
Small Cat
After allowing five goals against the Ottawa Senators, many expected Andrei Vasilevskiy to have a bounce-back performance against the Leafs. Instead, Vasilevskiy took an uncharacteristic step backward.
Although he only allowed one goal in the first period, Vasilevskiy surprisingly bobbled the puck on multiple occasions. No harm, no foul, though. The Lightning did just enough to ensure the puck stayed out of the net and kept the game tied. The second period, however, is where things began to unravel.
It started on the penalty kill, where Vasilevskiy looked to trap a harmless Mitch Marner shot against his chest. However, the puck bounced straight down, and Auston Matthews put one in to give the Leafs a permanent lead.
Vasilevskiy was then beaten on the short side on a two-on-one by William Nylander to give the Leafs a 3-1 lead.
Finally, Vasilevskiy allowed a long-range shot from Max Pacioretty to make it a three-goal game as he was pulled for the first time since last season against the Dallas Stars.
Vasilevskiy is still one of the best in the world; many will see this as an off night. But he looked shaky in a way that Lightning fans have not seen from him in a long time.
Depth in Numbers
Through the season's first four games, the rotating third pair on the defense of Emil Lilleberg, Darren Raddysh, and Nick Perbix was a giant blight on an otherwise solid team. In this game, while everybody struggled in one way or another, the third pair of Lilleberg and Raddysh again had a horrendous night.
Both defenders were -3 on the night, having an extremely difficult time getting the puck out of their zone and paying the price. While Vasilevskiy probably should have had one or two of those goals. Both took penalties as well, as Raddysh took an interference penalty in the first, and Lilleberg took a holding penalty in the third.
These two played just under a quarter of the game and were responsible for putting the Lightning in a 3-0 hole, which is extremely problematic for this team's future success. The Lightning need to find a calming third pair that can play some minutes going forward.
Short Rest
Thanks to some NHL scheduling, the Lightning will play again tomorrow, less than 24 hours after this game against the Leafs. For the lightning, it will be about pacing themselves in the second half of a back-to-back.
Many of the big names did not play their normal number of minutes, including Vasilevskiy, who played less than half the game. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Lightning deploy their lineup tomorrow and whether or not Vasilevskiy gets the start for a second consecutive game.
This also goes both ways for the depth as well. Names like Geekie, Paul, Lilleberg, and Raddysh all played more minutes than usual and might suffer a little extra fatigue tomorrow.