GOLD STAR: Victor Hedman scored the big second goal in the second period, and was a dominant force for Tampa Bay in the shutout win. Hedman finished with the goal, a plus-3 rating in a game-high 27:43 of ice time and effectively controlled play at both ends of the ice while Zdeno Chara struggled in his second game back from injury. Beyond the box score plays, Hedman also finished with three registered hits and a couple of blocked shots while leading a spirited effort by the Lightning that was clearly at a higher level than the Black and Gold. The Lightning needed their star players to step up with Steve Stamkos missing this game, and Hedman was at the top of the list along with others like Brayden Point and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
BLACK EYE: It was one of those nights where 33-year-old David Backes looked a little slow and a little behind the play as the power forward finished a game-worst minus-3, didn’t have a single shot on net and really wasn’t very involved in the flow of the game. Some of that might have been about him and some of it might have been about playing with young guys on either side of him as he was eventually bumped up to the second line with David Krejci and Ryan Donato. In a game where the Bruins were getting physically challenged by the Lightning at every turn, there wasn’t much of an answer from Backes or anybody else in a Bruins lineup that opted to go with Nick Holden instead of Adam McQuaid among their top-6 D-men. The bottom line is that among a lineup of Bruins players that weren’t good enough, Backes was certainly in that category.
TURNING POINT: The big turning point was Tampa’s first goal scored against the Bruins, which was a soft one allowed by Tuukka Rask. Nikita Kucherov slid a cross-ice pass to Brayden Point at the top of the face-off circle and Point let loose a long distance shot that somehow squeaked between Tuukka Rask’s blocker and his leg pads for a soft serve Tampa score. That was a momentum-crusher after the B’s had managed to escape the first period with a 0-0 game despite giving up 17 shots on net, and it was something the Bruins never really recovered from. Rask gave up another long distance shot for the second Tampa goal of the game, and that was pretty much it for the Black and Gold.
HONORABLE MENTION: Full credit to Patrice Bergeron as one of the few Bruins players that really extended full effort in an important, tough game against the Lightning. It was Bergeron that blocked a sure Nikita Kucherov goal with his right foot in the first period, and hit a post with a rocket from the slot at the end of the period that could have been a big momentum swing. Instead Bergeron went scoreless like everybody else on the Boston roster, had nine shot attempts and won 10-of-18 face-offs in 18:17 of ice time. Unfortunately for Bergeron he also had a couple of giveaways and was on the ice for a couple of goals against as well in the shutout loss.
BY THE NUMBERS: 3 – the number of shutout losses for the Bruins this season with one coming in the second game of the season against Colorado, and the last two coming within three weeks of each other in road losses to the Panthers and Lightning.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I thought a lot of our young guys got an education on what it takes. I'm not putting this on them, but I'm just saying the experience they gained tonight understanding the urgency level will be very good for them in the long run.” –Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy, on a shutout loss to Tampa where they clearly didn’t match the Lightning’s intensity out of the gate.