Lack of Aggression in Final Period Causes Tampa Bay to Blow Lead, Lose Game 1

TAMPA, Fla. — It looked for all the world that the Tampa Bay Lightning, known for their offensive prowess, had concocted the perfect defensive recipe for preserving a one-goal lead in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Just as they did in blanking the New York Rangers in Games 5 and 7 of the Eastern Conference Final, the Lightning were clogging shooting lanes against the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night. It was a carbon copy of those two performances against the Rangers, as the Blackhawks were helpless to find anything resembling a dangerous scoring chance. 

Yet there was a difference, a subtle one with painful consequences for the youthful Lightning. 

Chicago's Teuvo Teravainen and Antoine Vermette scored less than two minutes apart late in the third period, transforming what seemed to be an inevitable a 1-0 Lightning win into a stunning 2-1 series-opening loss at Tampa's Amalie Arena.

After playing so confidently on this stage for 40 minutes, the Lightning employed a strategy that proved too conservative against a loaded team looking for its third Stanley Cup in six years.

And it looked like the nerves that hadn't been there for the Lightning throughout this postseason run made their first appearance at the worst possible time.

“There’s a fine line between respect and fear,” said Brenden Morrow, one of the few Lightning veterans with a protracted postseason resume. “You can respect them; you can’t fear them. It looked like in the third we were holding on and the fear of maybe what would be coming and what might happen (set in).”

Some players dismissed the notion that fear got the better of the Lightning in Game 1. Others were willing to consider it as a reason for the collapse in the third period, but were correct to remind that if Ryan Callahan scores on a breakaway attempt less than two minutes before Teravainen’s seeing-eye goal, we're instead talking about how the Lightning truly do have a blueprint for protecting leads.

Before facing the Rangers in Game 7 last round, Lightning captain Steven Stamkos was asked about New York’s flawless record in Game 7s at home and its 6-0 mark in seventh games since 2012. His response: The Rangers hadn’t won any of those games against the Lightning.

The Lightning were 9-0 when scoring first this postseason and 8-0 when entering the third period with a lead at the outset of this Cup Final.

Mike Carlson/Getty Images

But to mimic Stamkos’ sentiment from last round, none of those wins came against the Blackhawks.

“You want to protect the lead and we’ve been quite successful in doing so in past games,” defenseman Anton Stralman said. “This time, we’re playing a highly skilled team and they’re a little bit too good to give that much room and that much puck possession.”

“We kind of played that way in Game 7 in New York,” Morrow said. “We held on, but we pressured more and forced pucks, when we got them, 200 feet and tonight we seemed like we were pretty happy to get it out and try and clog the neutral zone. But they were picking holes and doing a job of coming at us with speed.”

To hear those words uttered in a locker room that once had a sign on the wall that read “Safe Is Death” during a run to the 2004 Stanley Cup Final likely has Lightning fans cringing at the prospect of timid play costing this team a championship.

In a way, goaltender Ben Bishop and anyone who echoed his words are correct. The Lightning were one shot and six minutes away from a 1-0 victory that would have been eerily similar to what the team did against the Rangers. 

But the flaw in the argument is this: The Blackhawks are not the Rangers. 

There’s a fine line between fear and respect, sure, but there’s a Grand Canyon-sized gap between the Rangers and Blackhawks when it comes to talent. The Blackhawks were held to 21 shots in Game 1, only eight in the third period while Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane combined for nine shot attempts and zero points. 

Then the Blackhawks' depth came to the rescue, something the Lightning have been sorely lacking in these playoffs.

The winning goal was the result of everything that was discussed by players and coach Jon Cooper: a chip off the glass into the neutral zone instead of a confident pass to a teammate; a quick re-entry by a talented, fearless team; a forced turnover by third-liner Teravainen on second-year fourth-line forward J.T. Brown; and a snipe to the top corner by Vermette.

The Blackhawks don’t need 45 shots to beat you. All they need is a handful of dangerous chances and you to tighten up when the pressure is on.

That’s where experience matters in this series—in those small moments that turn into big goals—whether the Lightning want to admit it or not.

“Against a team like Chicago, you can't let them keep coming at you the way we did,” Cooper said. “But in saying that, reel off the grade A (scoring chances) they had. You know what I mean? It's not like we're sitting there saying, ‘Oh, my God, did they have chance after chance after chance?’ They had a little bit of time of possession, but they weren't getting good-time chances.”

“I don’t know if experience had anything to do with it,” Stralman said. “But definitely a lesson learned.”

The Lightning have to hope that, during a time of year not designed for learning lessons, it’s not too late to do so.

All statistics via NHL.com and all quotes obtained firsthand.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @DaveLozo.