Credit: Photo via Twitter (@PR_NHL)

The Tampa Bay Lightning entered Saturday’s contest after having four days off, and they 100-percent looked like a team shaking the rust off during the opening period of its third and final regular season game against the Washington Capitals. The Bolts — who beat the defending Stanley Cup champions in their first two meetings this season — mustered up just five shots in an opening frame that saw them also go down 3-0 when Capitals winger T.J. Oshie found the back of the net twice after center Nicklas Backstrom opened the scoring during a 4-on-2 just eight minutes into the game.

The situation did not get any better for the Lightning, which went down 4-0 in the second period when Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov made a great move to beat Lighting center Brayden Point, who ended up watching Backstrom score his second of the game. The frame saw the Bolts get outshot 15-9, and lose Victor Hedman who took a shot to the chin in the first, but the teams did manage to trade goals thanks to a J.T. Miller tip in that beat Washington goalie Braden Holtby to put the Lightning back within three goals with 2:35 left in the second.

The Lightning did not get Hedman back (the team announced that he would miss the rest of the game with an upper-body injury) — and Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin made it 6-2 with a pair of impressive goals — but the Bolts did get a breakaway goal from Tyler Johnson and manage to claw back in the shot count (the game finished with Tampa Bay getting outshot 35-28).

The Lightning also dropped the gloves twice in the third period thanks to Anthony Cirelli and Erik Cernak who had tilts with Brooks Orpik and Capitals caveman Tom Wilson, respectively. Cernak went to the locker room after his heavyweight twirl, and a late third period power play goal from Kucherov made for some cursory celebration, but the home fans were ultimately left with a bad taste in their mouth as the final horn sounded on the regular season home finale. All that salt, however, should make for an interesting return to Amalie once the playoff schedule is announced.

The Lightning have just four games left in the regular season, and the team’s week-long road trip kicks off on Monday in Ottawa before taking the team to Montreal, Toronto and then Boston for the regular season finale on Saturday, April 4.

This article appears in Mar 28 – Apr 4, 2019.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...