RECAP: Bruins fall to Tampa Bay by 5-4 score after third-period Lightning shooting gallery

Imagine if Tampa Bay was in the Western Conference, so you could have slept through this game and not be nearly as disappointed?

First Period

Marchand got behind defense for a fast-break chance early, and just missed wide. Connor Clifton stepped up into Ondrej Palat, stunning him for a moment. J.T. Miller had words for Clifton on their way back to the benches, and Palat did not return to the game.

Steven Stamkos was left all alone in his office by the defensive juggernaut known as John Moore and Steve Kampfer. Ryan Callahan found him with a nice cross-ice pass.

Nikita Kucherov took a penalty - questionable, maybe, but there were other “light” calls later in this game. Chara took a similar hook (on Kucherov, FWIW) in the second period that might otherwise have been ignored.

Brad Marchand scored a power-play goal, and extended his team lead in points by nearly 20 over linemate Patrice Bergeron.

Stamkos scored again, from higher in his office. What a RIP.

Second Period

Charlie. COYLE. SCORED!!

Great to see the guy get on the board again. That’s two consecutive games with a point, and he’s been buzzing the offensive zone. Regardless of where he lands in the lineup when Marcus Johansson returns, the B’s are going to need more of this.

And that was just the start. Brandon Carlo scored his first goal in over half a season, and less than a minute later, Brad Marchand added some insurance.

At least, we THOUGHT it was insurance.

Third Period

EFF.

THIS.

$#@&.

Game Notes

So this wasn’t an ideal result, but not the end of the world.

Listen to the latest episode of our UnSoupervised podcast, coming out later today, to hear Adam, Jake and Shawn break down some of this one. We’ll discuss the Tampa game, the rest of the regular season, Toronto gossip, and the Return of the Walking Dead .... Bruins. (Terrible, I know.)

We’ll see you Wednesday for the Rangers tilt!