Buffalo Sabres Strike Back and Defeat Tampa Bay

“There’s a big difference between the two”.

Tampa Bay got a spark early in the second, getting a power play 26 seconds in and converting 26 seconds later on a one-timer from center Steven Stamkos for his eighth goal of the season.

– Almost at the quarter pole for the season, the Lightning are on the outside looking in at the playoffs.

So where do the Bolts go from here?

The Lightning didn’t show almost enough desperation in a lethargic first period Tuesday.

The Lightning clearly didn’t win that fight on Tuesday.

The Tampa Bay Lightning look to snap out of their offensive funk against the worst defensive team in the league when the Calgary Flames pay them a visit on Thursday.

Karri Ramo will start his fifth-straight game on Thursday despite allowing four or more goals for the fifth time of his eight appearances in net for the Flames this season. “…It needs to be there”. Who the starter will be remains a big question mark as Lehner went down in the first game of the season and Ullmark is only 22 yrs. old playing in his first pro season in North America.

Second-2, Tampa Bay, Stamkos 8 (Kucherov),:52 (pp).

It was Eichel who started the Sabres scoring on the power play 5:57 into the first period.

The momentum was short-lived, however.

His goal last night wasn’t the highlight-reel variety, of which he’s already had a few, it was a one-time snipe from the left faceoff circle not far from the boards that put the team up 1-0 with just under six minutes played in the game. “Who knows? If not for goal, maybe we can tie the game, and maybe win for sure”.

“You could tell we were kind of feeling a good vibe on the bench, and then we gave that one up so now we’re chasing the game a little bit”, he said. “With 6’3” 207 lb. goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy moving quickly to his right to cover up the net, Eichel sent a bullet, putting it low, blocker-side in a place where Vasilevskiy couldn’t get it. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred dating back many years, a Buffalo player in a position like that would have either sent it high and wide or hit the goalie, most times right in the crest, in that situation.

The Lightning were never able to fully recover.

Buffalo also got goals from Cody Franson, Marcus Foligno and Rasmus Ristolainen, and Chad Johnson made 30 saves.

The most frustrating part about the Lightning’s play through the first 17 games is their inability to string together quality performances from game to game. While there weren’t a ton of shots, it was obvious that both teams had developed a strong dislike for each other, and that neither wanted to lose this last game of the season series. Last season, the Lightning were perhaps the steadiest team in the National Hockey League, going the entire regular season without losing more than two-straight games. “We come up with a big push, a big play by Jack”. Losers of 7 of their last 9, the team is currently on a streak where they have scored a whopping 13 goals and are now slotted in the ninth spot in the eastern conference playoff picture.

“We haven’t seen a “B” game yet this year”, he said. “The only guys that are going to get us out of this is ourselves”.