NEW YORK (WFLA) — The Tampa Bay Lightning dropped the first game of the NHL Eastern Conference Final 6-2 to the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.
After the game at Madison Square Garden, Dan Lucas was joined by WFLA Road to the Cup analyst Brian Bradley to discuss what went so wrong in a lopsided result, after the Lightning played a positive first period.
“The Lightning really played well in the first period after the first five minutes. I thought they dominated the game and, you know what? The second and third [periods] we just weren’t there to play,” Bradley said. “[Andrei Vasilevskiy] gave up some weak goals and at the end of the day, the Rangers capitalized on it.”
Bradley said the lack of possession hurt the Bolts.
“They gotta be better, they gotta get more shots and traffic in front of the net,” he said. “They had some chances on the power play that looked good but at the end of the day, the Rangers guys scored some big goals, some big time-y plays. [Vasilevskiy] needs to make a couple saves.”
The Lightning will now look to settle in and turn things around for Game 2, which is scheduled for Friday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.
