Photo by Alexis Boucher
It’s difficult to know where to even begin with tonight’s game. There was a whole lot of bad from start to finish. Whether it was allowing 41 shots, giving Evgeni Malkin space to work his magic, and missing good offensive opportunities. If it sounds like a broken record, that’s because a lot of these issues have plagued the Bolts all season. Pittsburgh came away with two points in an absolute beat down.
Guy Boucher may be gone, but Jon Cooper is dealing with an offense that continues to try to be too fancy. Instead of putting the puck on net, they’re dipsy doodling around with passes. Getting too complicated leads to turn overs and a lot of scoring changes for the opposition. It also means the Lightning lose quality chances to score their own goals. This has to be addressed.
As for the Lightning’s goals, all three came with the man advantage. Teddy Purcell scored twice and Brett Connolly scored his first of the year. The success on the power play is pretty much the only good thing that happened tonight.
This is a lesson to us all. The Lightning have a long way to go to be able to stand with the elite teams in the league. There’s a lot of work ahead of them this summer, that’s for sure.
