(Photo Credit: Chad Jones Black N’ Gold Productions)

By: Chad Jones | Follow me on Twitter/X @ShutUpChadJones

Saturday night at TD Garden, the Boston Bruins lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 to fall to 30-30-8 on the year. After a disappointing 6-3 road defeat at the hands of the Ottawa Senators Thursday, where Jeremy Swayman was pulled from the game after allowing four goals on 15 shots in the first period, the Alaskan native got the start against Tampa Bay. But the Bruins could not slow down the Lightning’s attack or consistently generate offense.

First Period

Just over two minutes into the game, the Lightning struck. After a scramble in front of the Boston net, Swayman allowed a hot rebound. The puck found Victor Hedman, who ripped home the chance from the edge of the left faceoff circle. Swayman would settle in and make some key stops during the period, most notably against Brayden Point from the slot with Tampa Bay on the power play.

Then, with just over four minutes left in the period, Andrew Peeke put on a terrific skating exhibition in Boston’s offensive zone before delivering a slick feed to Elias Lindholm in the slot. The center buried his 12th goal of the season and tied the game at one aside, which would be the score after the initial 20 minutes.

Second Period  

After a relatively even first period, Tampa Bay imposed their will over Boston in the middle frame. The Lightning’s aggressive forecheck and cycling ability caused massive problems for the Bruins. Right after the two-minute mark of the period, Tampa Bay was buzzing in Boston’s zone. Nick Paul hopped on a loose puck to the right of Swayman and ripped home a chance to reclaim the lead. But the Lightning were far from done.

Another effective cycling sequence had the Bruins scrambling in their own zone. A Ryan McDonagh blast from the point was deflected home off of Anthony Cirelli’s stick in the slot. Then, towards the end of the frame, Darren Raddysh, who was listed as the seventh defenseman, beat Swayman with a seeing-eye shot from the point. In those 20 minutes, Tampa Bay outshot Boston 21-0 and outscored them 3-0. The TD Garden faithful unleashed an avalanche of boo’s down as the siren sounded.

Third Period

But after one of the worst periods in recent memory, the Bruins did not lay down. Not even a minute into the frame, Marat Khusnutdinov’s wrist shot from just inside the blue line squeaked past Andrei Vasilevskiy for his second goal as a Bruin. But that would be the closest Boston would get.

Tampa Bay got a pair of empty net goals from Brandon Hagel and Cirelli. The Lightning outshot the Bruins 40-12 on the way to their 6-2 victory.

“It was embarrassing,” Lindholm said of the second period to the media postgame. “Compete level was nowhere to be found. Unacceptable.”

The second period was one of the most abysmal frames the Bruins have played in recent memory. They were utterly overwhelmed by Tampa Bay’s offensive pressure and could not get anything going in their offensive end. They were sloppy with the puck and lost focus in their defensive zone. Boston’s core and those fighting to be a part of the team’s plans must up their compete level.