Lightning fall early in 6-2 loss vs Boston

Less than a week after the two teams went at it in the final seconds of the game at Amalie Arena, the Bruins came out looking for redemption on the Lightning.

It was a night were Tampa Bay held possession but were never fully in the game, after falling into an early 2-0 hole. Ahead of the matchup, the Lightning's top center Brayden Point was announced as a healthy scratch due to missing a team meeting. Point's absence gave Jack Finley a chance to make his NHL debut. He finished with a hit and a shot on goal.

“It was unbelievable, especially playing in this building.. it was rocking tonight. Unfortunately we didn’t get the win, but it was dream come true from the start," said Finley. “I landed here, had a shower and came straight to the rink, so it was a quick turnaround. Didn’t really matter to me, getting the shot is all I wanted.”

Bruins center Trent Frederic opened the scoring 4:24 into the first period. Five minutes later, defenseman Parker Wotherspoon extended the lead to put the Bruins up 2-0.

The Bruins held the lead to start the second period and a little over a minute in, Brad Marchand made it 3-0. The Bruins had three goals in just seven shots. Soon after, David Pastrnak added another goal to make it 4-0.

Tampa Bay finally found the scoresheet when rookie Conor Geekie redirected a shot by Victor Hedman. Geekie was healthy-scratched on Sunday in Pittsburgh, this marked his first goal since December 12th against Calgary.

The Lightning continued to grind it out, and in doing so built some sustained zone time. Hedman went on to score with just 18 seconds left in the second period, giving the team some momentum heading into the third period.

“Being down four after 25 minutes is tough to get out of so, yes, once again, we put ourselves in a hole and we weren’t able to climb out,” said Hedman. “I think, obviously, after they scored the fourth one, we had a lot of chances. We made it a two goal game. I thought we were going to have a chance there 6 on 4 but they put it away right away. It's frustrating and it's got to come from within. We just have to have better starts to games.”

Despite Tampa Bay’s push in the third period, Boston solidified the win in the final minutes, when defenseman Andrew Peeke scored an empty-netter, after the Lightning lost the initial face-off on a 6-on-4. Just 26 seconds later, Pavel Zacha scored a second empty net goal, giving the Bruins a 6-2 win.

The Lightning have had a packed schedule in the month of January. They're set to play sixteen games in 27 days. Whether it's due to the natural workload that comes with playing multiple sets of back-to-back games or late travel, slow starts were an undeniable issue throughout the roadtrip. They trailed against New Jersey, Pittsburgh and Boston.

“It’s frustrating because you’re in the best league in the world. You can't just sit here and say you’re going to play 40 minutes and expect to win games," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "It’s tough because you can’t guarantee the score. You can sit here and say you had the puck all night, which we did, but their goalie made all the stops he needed to make. Scoring is not guaranteed, but you have a big say in how you defend and how you show up, and it’s unfortunate that these three games on the road trip we just didn’t show up on time.”