Andrei Vasilevskiy not being Andrei Vasilevskiy However, the rest of Tampa Bay’s blue-liners needed to pick up the slack in his absence, and they didn’t. Yes, losing Erik Cernak to injury in Game 1 was a massive blow and drastically changed the series.
The most egregious example is Ryan O’Reilly’s tying goal late in Game 3 when Ian Cole gave him far too much space right in front of the net. There were multiple times when they failed to get the puck out of dangerous situations or prevent the tip-in, and the Leafs capitalized on it. Unsurprisingly, most of those same issues plagued the Lightning in the playoffs. All of those numbers are noticeably worse than they were the previous season. Tampa Bay finished the regular season No. After losing Ryan McDonagh and Jan Rutta last offseason, as well as Victor Hedman getting older, the defense took a notable step back this season. The Lightning’s defense had been a recurring issue all season. *Watch NHL games LIVE with fuboTV (click for a free trial)* 3. Without further ado, here are three reasons why the Lightning lost to the Maple Leafs. Even with that, some crucial mistakes wound up costing them dearly. They had more shots in four of six games and controlled play for large stretches of time. One could argue that the Lightning played better overall throughout much of the series.
This marks Toronto’s first series win since 2004, and Tampa Bay’s first time missing the Stanley Cup Final since 2019.
This time, though, the Leafs got the better of the Lightning in a six-game series win. The Lighting matched up against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who they beat in seven games last year, in the first round once again. However, their run of dominance did not continue in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. With three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances and winning two of them, the Lightning and their fans have been eating good recently. The Tampa Bay Lightning have become used to winning over the last few years.
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