CAPITALS 2, LIGHTNING 1: Tampa Bay players fire 39 shots, but a goaltender who had not started in a month stops 38 of them.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published February 4, 2004
[Getty Images - Doug Pensinger]
The Lightning's Brad Richards, left, battles for position with the Capitals' Jeff Halpern.
The Lightning's Cory Sarich, right, lands a punch on Matt Pettinger of the Capitals in the second period.
WASHINGTON - The thing about winning is, it makes losing tougher to accept. The thing about losing? It feels even worse when you don't do the things needed to win.
Such was the case Tuesday night when the Lightning fell 2-1 to the Capitals at the MCI Center.
With heads bowed and words spoken softly in a locker room that seemed eerily empty without the usual thumping rock music, Tampa Bay players bemoaned their lack of intensity.
They kicked themselves for a lack of traffic around the net and the way that helped Washington goalie Maxime Ouellet look so good. They cringed at the loss of their six-game winning streak and four-game streak on the road, both of which tied franchise records.
"I don't think we paid the price enough tonight," right wing Martin St. Louis said.
Said center Brad Richards: "It was awful."
It was awful because it took more than two periods before the Lightning mounted the kind of pressure that sparked the 12-2-0-2 run it brought to the game.
It was awful because even though Tampa Bay held a 39-14 shot advantage, including 10-1 in the third period, Ouellet, who was called up Monday from AHL Portland and made his first NHL start since Jan. 4, was rarely tested severely with most shots from the outside.
In fact, the only goal Ouellet allowed - to Vinny Lecavalier, who cut the Lightning's deficit in half with 7:48 left in the third period - came on a rebound try that hit the post and deflected in off the goalie's mask.
Finally, it was awful because the Lightning failed to take advantage of, statistically, one of the league's worst teams, which got goals from Jeff Halpern in the first period and Anson Carter in the second.
"It shows you," St. Louis said, "in this league, you can't take a night off."
Still, after such a well-played run that pushed Tampa Bay to a 13-point lead in the Southeast, and Monday's emotional victory over the Flyers, such a game was bound to happen, wasn't it?
"No, no, no," coach John Tortorella said. "You get off the hook that way. Why can't you do it every night?"
But, coach, the law of averages "The law of averages you'd be a .500 hockey team," he said. "You play the game to win every night; back-to-back, how many games, how many you've won, doesn't matter.
"This isn't a feel-good thing, you won a few games and you lose one and it's okay.
"It isn't okay."
Especially when the Capitals, with only 41 points, 21 fewer than Tampa Bay, beat you at your own get-to-the-net game.
Halpern's goal beat Nikolai Khabibulin from the slot after Lightning defensemen Pavel Kubina and Darryl Sydor turned their backs on him to concentrate on Josef Boumedienne, who had the puck and got the assist.
Carter's tally came at the end of a nifty pass play that ended when Steve Eminger went cross-ice to the right wing, who was churning hard toward the Lightning goal.
"It felt good. We played good," Ouellet said.
"I just had to make the first save, and the guys took care of the rebounds."
There were rebounds to be had, though the Lightning usually did not have people in position to take advantage.
Not that Ouellet was completely unstressed.
Lecavalier, who had seven shots, was stopped from in close in the first period. Dmitry Afanasenkov was stopped on a prime chance in the second, and St. Louis was alone in front of the net with 3:08 left in the third.
"We just have to be a lot more desperate," Richards said.
Maybe Thursday when the Lightning faces the Predators in Nashville before the All-Star break.
"We had a good run. Now we have to start all over again," Richards said. "We have a break right after the game, so this should be the most desperate time of this season."
