Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Game Forty Three: Bruins Drop Game In Tampa

After coming off a shootout victory over the Florida Panthers on Monday night, the Bruins traveled a little further upstate to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. This was the second meeting between the two teams this season.

What is going on with the Bolts? Prior to Tuesday's game with the B's, Tampa was in last place in the Eastern Conference. They do have Steven Stamkos who leads the league in goals. However, they have the worst goals against average in the league, allowing 3.5 goals a game.

Across the sheet, Boston has been struggling even though their record does not show it. They really have not been clicking for the past few games now. Specifically, Bruins head coach Claude Julien called out Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic for not picking up their games lately. Would this turn out to be motivation or demoralizing?

Tim Thomas was back in net for Boston. Rich Peverley missed his second consecutive game due to a personal matter. He will likely miss the next two games as well. Zach Hamill and Jordan Caron skated with Chris Kelly once again.

Boston had a terrible opening period. The offense only got most of their shots when they had two power plays and the defense was straight up awful. The poor play was evident in the way that they allowed Tampa Bay to score the only goal of the period. Vincent Lecavalier tapped in the puck past Thomas after three Bruins players failed to clear it out of the crease.

The Lightning continued their momentum into the second period as they started off with a power play. Once the Bruins killed it off, the momentum started to shift. Horton scored two goals in the period. Looks like the words of Julien motivated him after all. The B's, however, had a mental lapse that turned into a Tampa Bay goal. Tom Pyatt put the puck past Thomas after a turnover by Boston.

The Lightning proved to be too much for the Bruins as they went on to score three goals in the final 20 minutes. Ryan Malone, Dominic Moore, and Stamkos (empty net) recorded the tallies for the Bolts. Daniel Paille had a short-handed goal for Boston but it was not enough. The Bruins dropped this game by a score of 5-3.

Tampa Bay snapped their seven-game losing streak at the expense of the Bruins. Also, the B's suffered their first loss of the season when Andrew Ference records a point as he had an assist on Horton's second goal.

The Bruins will be back in action Thursday night when they take on the New Jersey Devils.

Gold Star: Nathan Horton...All he really needs is a boost of confidence for him to get his game going again.

Black Star: Joe Corvo...He was trying to do too much by chasing the puck around and causing turnovers. Can we please see Steven Kampfer play?

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