Lightning Can’t Strike When it Counts
The Tampa Bay Lightning made a seemingly early exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Lightning and the Columbus Blue Jackets played game four in their best of seven series…
COLUMBUS, OH – APRIL 14: Cam Atkinson #13 of the Columbus Blue Jackets celebrates after Matt Duchene #95 beats Andrei Vasilevskiy #88 of the Tampa Bay Lightning for a goal during the second period Game Three of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs on April 14, 2019 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus defeated Tampa Bay 3-1 to take a 3-0 series lead. (Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)
Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)The Tampa Bay Lightning made a seemingly early exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Lightning and the Columbus Blue Jackets played game four in their best of seven series last night.
Less than two and a half minutes into the first period, 19-year-old Blue Jackets rookie, Alexandre Texier scored his first career playoff goal on the power play.
Not even two minutes later they added some insurance after 20-year-old Pierre-Luc Dubois scores his first goal of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs against goalie Andre Vaseleski.
The Lightning was able to tie the game late in the second for less than a minute before they handed the lead back to Columbus.
After giving Columbus the tiebreaker, in the second, Tampa was not able to fight back and get another goal.
This series will forever stand as one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Coming into the series the Lighting had 29 more points than the Blue Jackets did. Aside from tieing the
NHL wins record, Tampa also swept the season series against the Blue Jackets by going 3-0-0.
Tampa was not able to rely on their star players and their goalie this series.
Come July first, Stralman, Coburn, Rutta, and Girardi are all free agents. The Lightning is going to have to work on resigning some of their defense but should not be making any dramatic moves this offseason.
After last nights game, the Lightning sent an apology to their fans over Twitter for the way that they had played in the playoffs.
Written by: Conor D Sherman
