Tampa Bay Lightning 7, Caps 4
Well, all good things come to an end, I guess. The Caps’ mastery of their Southeast Division rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning, went down in flames on Tuesday in a 7-4 loss. Washington had won seven in a row at St. Pete Times Forum – the second-longest road streak in franchise history against one opponent save the Islanders from 1997 to 2001. Caps coach Bruce Boudreau also ended up on the losing end to Tampa Bay for the first time since he took over on Thanksgiving Day, 2007. That winning streak was 12 games overall dating back to Nov. 16, 2007.
But it’s the way they lost more than the defeat itself that will sting. The Caps fell behind 4-1 and rookie goalie Michal Neuvirth looked like the 21-year-old that he is, not the solid player that had earned eight starts over the last 10 games in place of veteran Jose Theodore. One period was all it took for Boudreau to make the switch. Neuvirth game up four goals on 15 shots in the first period. He made some nice saves, too. But that just isn’t going to cut it – even if his teammates didn’t seem to play with much urgency early on.
Get used to that, boys. With the Caps up 16 – well, now 14 – in the Southeast Division they’ll have to find a way to grind through these nights in the second half against teams pushing desperately to stay in the playoff race. This was a big game for Tampa. For the Caps? A win would have been nice. But they just don’t have as much at stake at this point. Not an excuse. You do have to fight through those things and it was something this group struggled with at times last year in the second half of the regular season when they weren’t playing Detroit or Philadelphia or Pittsburgh-level teams.
But give the Caps credit for rallying back from 4-1 down to tie the game in the second period. Defenseman Mike Green scored twice with an Eric Fehr goal sandwiched in between . But the penalty kill – so good in recent games – fell apart against a Tampa squad with some serious skill, if not much offensive depth. Washington allowed four power-play goals in seven attempts. That was another problem. The discipline they’d shown lately disappeared for whatever reason. The goal late in the second period by Martin St. Louis – just 2:32 remained – was a killer. That came just over five minutes after Green’s second goal tied the game. Both of Green’s tallies came on the power play. Old friend Jeff Halpern and Kurtis Foster gave the Lightning some insurance goals in the third period.
Washington fell to 27-12-6 with 60 points. Tampa Bay “cut” the Caps’ division lead to 14 and broke the .500 mark with the win. The Lightning are 20-19-6 with 46 points and now just two out of eighth place in the Eastern Conference. Alex Semin also scored for Washington – No. 19 overall. Forward Matt Bradley, meanwhile, wouldn’t let Alex Ovechkin fight Tampa’s Steve Downie after their third-period collision. Tampa Bay’s players claimed in several postgame comments to the Associated Press that it was a knee-on-knee hit – not the best idea for Ovechkin at this point after his suspension earlier this season. But watching the replays, I don’t know. Seemed like Ovechkin came straight at him. Maybe their knees banged? I don’t really see an obvious attempt to stick the leg out. Just an opinion. We’ll see if the league office takes a look at the play. One thing’s for sure – Ovechkin is under much tighter scrutiny now.
