Sunday, 4 a.m.
Before the Tampa Bay Lightning can cash in on their season, they're going to have to get out of jail.
Once again, penalties helped to slow down the Lightning in their 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers Saturday night, the third time this year New York has beaten the Bolts.
Tampa Bay hobbled itself against the Rangers, and its penalty in the final 2:15 of the game kept the team shorthanded down the stretch. It was the
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seventh penalty of the night (six of them minors) for the Lightning, hereon called the Cooper Gang, and their 46th over the last nine games.
"We played tonight’s game and we take six minors," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "We put a skilled team like that on the ice for 11 minutes while our guys sit on the bench. The story of the game is how great is the penalty kills were. But why should it be the story of the game? It should never be the story of the game. Right now you wonder what’s going on with the team and how we literally shoot ourselves in the foot.
"You can sit here and say all you want about taking a penalty with two minutes to go in a tie game, but we took five before that. One was my fault (on an unsuccessful challenge). You go through our road trip. When you have to kill that many penalties, it puts the game in the balance."
Mika Zabanejad scored the winning goal with 16 seconds to play.
Tampa Bay led 1-0 on Brayden Point's first-period goal, but the lead didn't stand up. Rangers' goalie Igor Shesterkin shut the Bolts out from there.
"That's just another thing that's creeped into our game," Point said of the penalties. "It's something we’ve got to sort out. It's very taxing on our penalty killers to be playing that much. Tonight it just bit us."
Steven Stamkos played his seventh game without a goal. Newly acquired Brandon Hagel did not score.
The Bolts play in Carolina on Tuesday night. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
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