Suddenly, the Tampa Bay Lightning is in a slump.
Tampa Bay lost its second consecutive game Sunday afternoon, and its third in its last four games, with a 4-1 bashing at the hands of the Boston Bruins.
“Our guys gamed it out,” said coach Jon Cooper. “Really, it was just a nothing game, we were having a good road game and then it basically was blown assignments. That’s the tough part. We lose the center on the first (goal). We were a little out of position on the penalty kill goal, and then we don’t make a hard play in front of the net, they tip it in and that was pretty much it. The big picture, the guys played hard. Every time we made a little mistake, they put it in the net and that’s tough.”
The Bruins scored three times in the third period when Dominic Moore, David Backes and Jimmy Hayes scored. David Pasternak made it 4-0 in the third.
“It’s hard to tell a smaller guy to get to an area, a 5-foot-9 guy to get through a guy that’s 6-foot-4, but you have to use your skills, you have to use your speed, your compete, your tenacity and all those things,” Cooper said. “And I thought our guys did a lot of that. Like I said, it was blown assignments and that’s what ultimately resulted in the pucks that went in the net. By no means was it effort. Guys were gaming it out. They worked, it was just one of those games where everything they touched went in and nothing we touched went in. That’s it.”
For the Bolts, Jonathan Drouin scored in the third period to avoid the shutout.
Goaltender Ben Bishop has surrendered nine goals in his last two outings.
“You’ve got to feel for him because that first period he was solid,” Cooper said. “There weren’t very many chances either way but he was commanding, he was playing the puck and then these bounces go in on him. That first one, you can’t allow two of their guys at the net and just have them swatting at pucks. We’ve got to help him out a little bit and I don’t know if we did.”
Tampa Bay plays in Columbus Tuesday night.
