One hit in the first period rendered the outcome of this rematch meaningless for Florida fans. Cats fans are far more concerned about the health of Matthew Tkachuk, who exited the game toward the end of the first period after a knee-to-knee contact with Nikita Kucherov. It was a revolving door to the Panther locker room, and the penalty box as multiple Florida players went down the tunnel for injuries and to the box as fights broke out all night, especially in the second period. Florida struggled to get anything going offensively and split the back-to-back with a 0-4 loss to the Lightning.
Costly Slow Start:
Tampa was on a mission to not repeat what happened on Sunday. They came out with a lot of juice to their game and pressured the Cats early in the first period, at one point outshooting them 0-5 in the first five minutes. After keeping Kucherov off the scoresheet and going back to the playoff games, he finally scored the first goal of the game during 4v4.
The Lightning caught the Panthers in a line change and capitalized for the 0-2 lead. Chaffee converted a late power play into a 0-3 lead, his goal coming on a rebound after a great save by Bob. The Lightning rode the lead all the way into late in the third when they scored an empty net short-handed goal for the final 0-4 win.
Parade To The Locker Room:
Kucherov’s hit on Tkachuk set the tone for how the rest of the game went. The Panthers had several players go down the tunnel to be looked at. Tkachuk was the first and I think most expected he wouldn’t return to the game after a hit that. To the delight of the crowd, Matthew was back out on the ice in the second period, earning himself a large ovation. It’s always a scary moment when you see a player go down like that, especially for Florida, where Tkachuk is such a huge leader. He wasn’t the only player to leave the ice, though; Verhaeghe was the next one that went down the tunnel to be looked at. He threw a big hit in the second period and then was missing from the bench for a good six or seven minutes before returning. Greer threw a hit that sent him over Perbix and into the boards at the end of the second period. He went down the tunnel to be looked at before he returned in the third period.
Fight Night In Sunrise:
Monday night’s game very much resembled one specific game from last season. In a match against the Arizona Coyotes, Zucker threw a hit on Cousins, which resulted in injury and a whole lot of fighting for the rest of the game. Tempers were short even before Kucherov’s hit as Greer and Lilleberg dropped gloves, but the fight was quick. As a result of it not being a full fistfight, each player was assessed a 2-minute minor for roughing. A fight in front of the Lightning net ended in Chaffee and Lundell getting offsetting roughing penalties.
Tampa took back-to-back penalties early in the second, with Hedman (holding) & Cernak (roughing) going to the box. Kulikov threw a pretty clean hit, but Tampa took exception to it and jumped him. That set off Florida, and a second full-team fight broke out in the Tampa Bay zone. Kulikov and Paul were given 10-minute misconduct. A final roughing penalty was given to Matthew Tkachuk in the second period.
