Photo by Linda Hamilton

Like most of you, we didn’t get a chance to watch the Lightning’s matinee match up against the New York Islanders. Based on how the first two periods went and the reactions on Twitter, that might be for the best. The score makes it seem closer than  it actually was. Things started off in rollicking old time hockey fashion. Just one second into the game B.J. Crombeen paired off with Matt Martin. As if it couldn’t get better, Pierre-Cedric Labrie dropped his mitts and took on Joe Finley.

Wow. Not sure if there were chirps going back and forth during warm ups or what but the Bolts came out swinging. It’s going to take a while to adjust to that sort of toughness being back in the line up. The first period went by without a goal for either team. The Lightning did take a rash of penalties, but Anders Lindback stood tall.

The second period is when things took a turn. The Isles scored 3 goals in a span of 12 minutes. They made it 4-0 not long after that. Goaltending wasn’t necessarily the issue here. Lindback was doing everything he could to keep his teammates in the game, the defense just wasn’t there.

As he’s done countless times before, Marty St. Louis lead the rallying charge with a goal at 7:26. Benoit Pouliot and Steven Stamkos notched their own to bring the Bolts within one. Unfortunately that one didn’t come.

”(We) made a few mistakes. We gave in a little too much, maybe, in the second period. That made the difference,” Tampa Bay center Vincent Lecavalier said. ”(The Islanders) played a good game. They moved the puck well. They played very well.”(Quote Source:  Yahoo! Sports)

Tampa doesn’t have time to rest on their laurels. They meet Carolina tomorrow night at 7 pm before returning home for a brief home stand this weekend.