This will be a brief summary. Yes, the road trip began with a 3-1 loss for the Tampa Bay Lightning against the New York Rangers. The injury to defenseman Mikhail Sergachev made headlines. After colliding with Alexis Lafreniere near the boards in the second period, the 25-year-old sustained a lower-body injury and needed to be removed from the ice on a stretcher.
Following the game, captain Steven Stamkos remarked, “You feel sick to your stomach.” Playing in his first game since the end of December, Sergachev was recovering from a second lower-body injury that he sustained when Colton Parayko’s shot was blocked during a St. Louis game. The extent of his injury is unknown at this time. Even if the exact nature of the injury is not revealed to us right away, we should soon learn how long he might miss and how it will impact the Lightning’s plans in the run-up to the trade deadline.
Regarding the game itself, the Lightning performed admirably in the opening frame, encountered some problems in the second frame that resulted in goals against, and, despite a goal by Brandon Hagel in the third, were unable to complete the comeback. With an empty-net goal, the Rangers were able to tie the game at one.
Despite having made 21 saves out of 23 shots in the end, Andrei Vasilevskiy undoubtedly wishes he could get back the first goal he gave up. Jimmy Vesey attacked down the right side of the ice, and Vasy left a lot of space on the short side, seemingly anticipating a centering feed. Even so, Vesey had to make an incredible shot on the backhand to roof it under the bar.
Coach Cooper believed that the Rangers’ dominance of the game may have come from his team’s little fatigue following their extended layoff. That appeared to be the case, as New York outshot the Lightning 9-4 and scored 80.68% of the predicted goal share in the middle frame (despite benefiting from 3:17 of power play time). Less than three minutes remained in the quarter when Jonny Brodzinski doubled the lead. Vasilevskiy didn’t appear to be prepared for the shot, but his one-timer from the right circle got past him. Even more disheartening was the fact that Chris Kreider outplayed two Bolts to set up Brodzinski for the shot, and the Lightning lost the board fight before the shot.
The Lightning attempted a comeback in the third period despite being behind by two goals and without a defenseman. They managed to get ten shots on Jonathan Quick, who ended up with nineteen saves and his third consecutive victory. Sadly, Brandon Hagel—who scored his 17th goal of the year at 5:29—was the only Bolt who was able to defeat him.
Erik Cernak, making his comeback to the game, set Hagel up with a lovely backhand pass. With the secondary assist, Nikita Kucherov scored his 86th point and retook the lead over Nate MacKinnon in the scoring race.
The Lightning had several last-minute opportunities to tie the game, but Alex Barre-Boulet missed a chance and Victor Hedman rang one off the post. With 1:01 remaining in the game, Vesey destroyed their hopes of a comeback with an empty net. Vincent Trocheck recorded the other assist of the evening, while longtime friend Barclay Goodrow picked up his second.
The Lightning’s three-game winning streak came to an end with the defeat, which drops them to 10-14-2 on the road. Together with their defeat, the Toronto Maple Leafs overtook them in the standings with a 5-4 comeback victory over the Dallas Stars. The good news is that the Bolts will face the New York Islanders on Thursday, giving them an opportunity to get back on track.
