Search for consistency, power play goes on
SENATORS 4, LIGHTNING 1: With a bad outing, Tampa Bay has no answers, even after a postgame meeting.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published October 22, 2005
TAMPA - An NHL locker room is supposed to open to the media five minutes after a game.
The Lightning stretched that rule Friday night. Just by a few minutes, but that is how seriously the players took a team meeting after a bad 4-1 loss to the Senators at the St. Pete Times Forum.
"This was a reality check for us," said captain Dave Andreychuk, who called the meeting. "We're going to have to bring our A game to beat them and tonight we didn't have our A game."
You would have to go pretty far through the alphabet to pinpoint what kind of game Tampa Bay brought in its third straight home loss.
The team was held to a season-low 24 shots; 11 through two periods. It was 0-for-7 with one shot - one - on the power play that is 6-for-62 overall.
Worse, the Senators defense dominated Tampa Bay's forwards. It was such a complete squelching, that aside from big saves on Marty St. Louis and Tim Taylor, Ottawa goaltender Dominik Hasek didn't have much to do.
His only blip: Dmitry Afanasenkov's goal that tied the score 1-1 9:15 into the first period.
"That," Hasek said, "was the best game we've played all year."
And that's saying something considering Ottawa (6-0-0) is arguably the league's best team.
Arguing where the Lightning stands is more problematic.
"To win we have to believe in each other," Andreychuk said. "We have to stay together as a team. There's pressure on the guys to play well. Guys are squeezing it a little bit. We have to get out and play."
Coming off a 6-0 victory Thursday over the Thrashers, it seemed a perfect time to do that.
But St. Louis and defensemen Darryl Sydor and Pavel Kubina were minus-3. Vinny Lecavalier was minus-2. Kubina and Dan Boyle, who play the power-play blue line, had zero shots.
Coach John Tortorella even put the struggling St. Louis, demoted before the Thrashers game, back on a line with Brad Richards and Fredrik Modin.
"No, he hasn't earned it," Tortorella said. "I guess I'm hoping."
But the coach said it was unfair to focus on St. Louis, though the 2003-04 MVP has three points in nine games. And it should be mentioned St. Louis was limping after the game because of a hard knee to the right thigh from Chris Phillips.
"We can't have guys lying in the weeds," Tortorella said. "I couldn't find Vinny. I couldn't find Brad. I couldn't find Marty. ... I can't find Danny, can't even find him in the building. I can't find Kuby. That's a big part of our team offensively."
Without it you get a five-on-three power play for 1:11 and four minutes of five-on-four that do nothing.
That makes things such as the defensive flubs by Kubina, Sydor and St. Louis that led to goals stand out even more.
Then there was Daniel Alfredsson's short-handed goal into an empty net that made the score 2-1 in the second period. That happened after goalie John Grahame went more than halfway to the blue line to break up a possible breakaway and threw his stick at Ottawa's Dany Heatley, who gathered the puck.
"I think they're in a bit of a funk right now," said Alfredsson, who scored after Heatley shot wide. "They don't really know where they are themselves."
No wonder the meeting took so long, there was lots to talk about.