The Boston Bruins have been handing out two-goal leads to start games like they were candy on Halloween. Tonight, they thought why not take it a step further as they were down 3-0 at 4:31 and 4-0 at 15:38 of the first period.
By rolling 6-1, the Tampa Bay Lightning (32-30-7) helped push the B's (40-26-03) over the cliff at the Tampa Bay Times Forum and they didn't forget to pour gasoline over the tire fire that is the Black and gold.
It's the first time since October, the month that shall not be spoken about, that Boston has lost three games in a row. The worst part was that this prideful team simply laid down from beginning to end, against an average opponent.
Marty Turco (8 saves) got the start but he was yanked after allowing three goals, one of which was completely preventable and his fault. Tim Thomas (3 saves) came in for almost two periods but he wasn't much better as he allowed two goals. Turco returned in the third period and he had the honor of allowing Steven Stamkos' 50th goal of the season (second time he's done that in his career, 51 in '09-'10).
Tom Pyatt (8th of the season) kicked off the scoring (no pun intended) by knocking the puck off his skate. It was called no-goal on the ice but somehow the league officials in Toronto thought it was a goal so it was reversed. Things only got worse as Turco fumbled a puck right to Nate Thompson (9th of the season) then former BC star Ryan Shannon (4th of the season) skated in on a breakaway.
Tampa Bay scored its fourth goal-the most Boston has allowed in a period this season-when Victor Hedman (4th of the season) put one over Thomas' shoulder. The only semblance of pride exhibited by the B's in that frame was from Shawn Thornton, as usual, who beat the hell out of Mike Commodore.
Did I mention that Boston had two shots (really) in the first? Stamkos' received a gift from Thomas in the form of his 49th goal in the second period. Stamkos flipped it on net, with no power and Thomas fall over the line and couldn't stop it.
Jordan Caron (7th of the season) prevented the shutout for Dustin Tokarski (33 saves) when he tipped in a shot by Johnny Boychuk in the third period.
The Lightning come to TD Garden in two weeks, maybe by then the Bruins will have woken up. Either that or they'll no longer be in first in the Northeast Division so they'll be on the fringe of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
Boston ends this torturous trip (0-2 so far, 3 goals scored, 11 goals allowed) on Thursday against the Panthers. The Bruins are 2-1 against Florida so far this season although they haven't played them in nearly two months.
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