Some notes on the Pittsburgh Penguins humbling 8-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning:
- The Lightning showed why it's imperative to keep them off of the power play. Their four goals (4-for-6) on the man advantage turned a comfortable lead into a humiliating one.
- Comparatively, the Penguins' power play was inept once again. The power play unit was given plenty of opportunities in the 1st and 2nd periods to get back into the game, but, in finishing 0-for-6, squandered each of them.
- This was also a prime example of why the 'shots on goal' statistic can be a meaningless one. The Penguins held a comfortable lead in shots, but all of Tampa Bay's goals came off of prime scoring opportunities, whether they were on rebounds or crisp passing combinations.
- Steven Stamkos and Simon Gagne looked great when the game was still in question. The Penguins had done a great job nullifying Stamkos until today, and it was one of the main reasons Pittsburgh jumped out to a 3-1 series lead.
- Don't bother blaming the loss on any individual players. This was a collective bed-wetting.
- It was also just one game. As the Penguins showed in Game 3, they're more than capable of rebounding from a nasty defeat.
Scoring Summary:
1st Period
16:57 - TB -Simon Gagne 1 (Teddy Purcell, Vincent Lecavalier)
17:43 - TB - Steven Stamkos 1 (Steve Downie, Adam Hall)
2nd Period
1:55 - TB - Vincent Lecavalier 2 (Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis)
5:31 - TB - Simon Gagne 2 (Dominic Moore, Mike Lundin)
4:00 -TB - Steven Stamkos 2 (power play) (Eric Brewer, Martin St. Louis)
3rd Period
2:54 -TB - Pavel Kubina 1 (power play) (Teddy Purcell, Marc-Andre Bergeron)
5:45 -TB - Pavel Kubina 2 (power play) (Teddy Purcell, Steve Downie)
6:36 - PIT - Michael Rupp 1 (Alex Kovalev, Max Talbot)
8:22 - PIT -Chris Conner 1 (Max Talbot, Kris Letang)
15:35 - TB - Dominic Moore 1 (power play) (Sean Bergenheim, Nate Thompson)