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More Of Same: Another Bolts Loss

The Associated Press

Tampa Bay Lightning's Paul Szczechura is hit along the boards by Ottawa Senators' Alexandre Picard.

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 14, 2008

OTTAWA - The battle of expansion cousins Tampa Bay and Ottawa on Saturday looked more like the kind of family reunion where both sides of the family forget to bring their photo albums.

There was nothing for either side to brag about.

"That was some bad hockey out there," Lightning interim coach Rick Tocchet said. "If I was a fan, I would want to get my money back. That was some terrible hockey. You can't blame the refs even though there were a hundred power plays; that was just garbage hockey."

The two lowest-scoring teams in the league played as advertised, displaying little offensive flair or efficiency with the puck, combing for 23 giveaways. Two powerless power plays were on display, with Ottawa's work with the man advantage being just a notch less worse than the Lightning's. That proved to be the difference in Ottawa's 2-0 victory, the winning goal a power-play tally by former Lightning defenseman Alexandre Picard in the second period.

The winning goal, scored at 5:04 of the second, came with five seconds left on an Ottawa power play, which followed a 96-second five-on-three advantage for the Senators.

Tampa Bay's power play, meanwhile, went 0-for-4 and is in an 0-for-25 slump the past six games and did little to test Martin Gerber, who stopped 24 shots for his 10th career shutout.

"This was a game I felt we could have won if we pushed that much harder," defenseman Steve Eminger said. "If we just did a little more details, had a little more fight."

Instead, any momentum the Lightning felt it might have built up following Thursday's victory in Montreal evaporated quickly as Tampa Bay fell to 2-11-4 in the past 17 games to remain at the bottom of the league standings.

"After that Montreal game, I thought we were going to come out hard and we didn't," Tocchet said. "It's about grit and wanting to win and we didn't want to win tonight."

And once again, Tampa Bay's listless offense failed to provide any help for its goaltender as Mike Smith stopped 31 of 32 shots but only had his ninth consecutive loss - including two in overtime - to show for his efforts. It marked the fourth time in 30 games this season the Lightning have been shut out.

"We just didn't show anything, and it starts with our big guys right on down," Tocchet said.

Tampa Bay received a scare to one of its big guys in the final minute when right wing Marty St. Louis, who had his six-game scoring streak snapped, was clipped on his forehead and nose by the skate of linesman Derek Amell just after a faceoff. St. Louis immediately fell to the ice with blood dripping off his nose and made his way back to the bench.

With St. Louis dragging and play not being stopped for the injury, Daniel Alfredsson scored into an empty net to secure the victory.

St. Louis received eight stitches to his forehead and nose and is expected to be fine when the Lightning resume action on Thursday at home against Colorado.

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835.

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