Enough with the regular season. Bring on the playoffs.
The Tampa Bay Lightning grew bored with the season with one game to go. They were thumped in their regular season finale Wednesday night, losing a 4-2 decision to the New York Rangers.
The Bolts finished with 50-26-6 record, tied for second place in the Atlantic Division.
How nonchalant did the Bolts take this one? Well, they started Brandon Halverson in goal, choosing to sit Andrei Vasilevskiy. Regular backup Jonas Johannson is injured.
Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel and were inactive.
The Rangers took a 3-0 five minutes into the second period. The Bolts' Oliver Bjorkstrand scored his 12th goal. Corey Perry scored his 17th.
Nikita Kucherov did not score for the Lightning, finishing in second place in the NHL's scoring race to Connor McDavid.
The Bolts are at Benchmark Arena either Saturday or Sunday against Montreal.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet your first-place Tampa Bay Rays.
Sure, it's awful early to bring it up. But when you remember how awful the Rays' bullpen was early in the season, who would have thought they could dig their way out of mediocrity so fast?
The Rays won their fourth straight game Tuesday, beating the woeful Chicago White Sox 8-5. The Rays gave up just five hits, but home runs by Everson Pereira and Munetaka Murakami kept the Sox within striking distance.
The Rays jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning . Ryan Vilade doubled in Jonathan Aranda. Ben Williamson forced in another run with a sacrifice bunt, and Vilade scored on a throwing error by pitcher Noah Schultz.
Williamson added a double in the third, knocking in Vilade again. For the night, Williamson had two doubles and his sacrifice bunt. Vilade had three hits
Pereira's three-run homer made it close again, but Tampa Bay scored twice in the sixth and twice in the seventh.
Shane McClanahan allowed just two hits and two earned runs in his five-inning start. He notchwd his first win in 1,033 days.
The Rays had 12 hits and six walks in the game.
The Rays and White Sox will play again at 7:40 p.m. tonight at Rate Field. The Rays will start Jessee Scholtens against Sean Burke.
Kucherov has 395 points the last three years./TIM WIRT
Tuesday, 4 a.m.
For the Tampa Bay Lightning it was the perfect way to close out a game.
Andrei Vasilevskiy ... huge save.
Brayden Point ... slick return pass.
Nikita Kucherov ... the winning goal.
It didn't take long -- only 27 seconds of overtime -- but the Bolts found the perfect finish to their 4-3 win over Detroit in extra time at Benchmark International Arena. It was the Bolts' 50th win of the year, leaving them in a three-way tie with Buffalo and Montreal for the Atlantic Division lead.
The Bolts could be forgiven if they entered overtime on a down note. They held a 3-1 lead in the third period but gave it up to the Red Wings.
Detroit won the opening faceoff of overtime, and Alex DeBrincat drove to the net and got off a good shot. But Vasilevskit stopped it. Kucherov took the puck and did a back-and-forth passing drill with Point before scoring the winning goal.
It was Kucherov's 44th goal of the year. He is within three points of the NHL's scoring lead.
Also scoring for the Bolts were Conor Geekie (his first goal) and Jake Guentzel (his 38th).
Vasilevskiy stopped 27 of 30 shots for his 39th victory of the season.
The Bolts wrap up their regular season at Benchmark on Wednesday at 7 p.m. against the New York Rangers.
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Saturday, 4 a.m. There are times they look like a ballclub. There are times when the starting pitching is sturdy, when the relief pitching plays its role, when there is enough hitting. On such nights, the Rays seem to make sense. They hint there are nights when they can compete. On such nights. even the […]
Friday, 4 a.m. Is this any way to enter the NHL playoffs? Usually, a team imagines itself entering on a hot streak. The goalie is magical, the offense is explosive, the defense is bulletproof. Alas, it isn’t that way for the Tampa Bay Lightning, who lost their third straight game Thursday night, 2-1 to Montreal. […]
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About Gary Shelton
• No one covers Tampa Bay like Gary Shelton.
• No one has seen as many moments, as many athletes, as many coaches as he has over the last quarter of a century.
• No one has won more awards, including two national Associated Press Sports Editors Best Columnist awards and eight top 10 finishes. He also just received his sixth Sportswriter of the Year award for Florida by the NSSA.
• No one has seen more big events, including 29 Super Bowls, 10 Olympics and 11 Final Fours. Gary still goes into the locker rooms to obtain his stories.
• No one has made you angrier, or laugh louder, or think harder about what he has written.
Now, he begins a website designed to keep him in touch with the readers who have grown up on his words.
