Before the game even started we had one of the worst renditions of both anthems that I have ever heard. Right then and there, it set the mood. The Lightning outperformed the Oilers in every way on this miserable afternoon, and the scoreboard would wind up reflecting that.

First Period:

• Ty Rattie announces his presence by scoring 14 seconds into the game. He grabbed the puck in the corner, turned around and threw it to the crease, it hit Louis Domingue, and went in. Weird shot, but i’s nice that the Oilers have an early lead for a change.
• Less than five minutes later, the lead disappeared. Victor Hedman took a slap shot off the faceoff win and goes bar down on Al Montoya.
• Ryan Strome and Jujhar Khaira each had penalties in the period, the Oilers managed to kill them off. Not too much else of note.

Second Period:

• Andrej Sekera trips Adam Erne and heads to the box. He wouldn’t sit for the full two minutes.
• The Oilers got caught scrambling on the powerplay, Steven Stamkos got the puck behind the net and passed it to a wide-open Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov extends his NHL scoring lead by shooting the puck past a very out of position Montoya.
• Tampa Bay took a few penalties in this period, but the Oilers didn’t do much with them.

Third Period:

• Yanni Gourde gets called for cross-checking and the Oilers get a very nice powerplay opportunity to tie it.
• Instead, they look terrible. The Lightning ended up controlling the play for most of it. Then to top it off, Kucherov scores again shortly after the penalty was over.
• The Refs give the Oilers a 5 on 3 powerplay half way through. It too, doessn’t accomplish much.
• The Oilers tried to cut the lead with an empty net in the final moments, but they just couldn’t do it. 3-1 is your final.

Notes:

• Connor McDavid was held pointless, while Kucherov had two goals. That scoring race might be over.
• Ethan Bear made a few mistakes but still played pretty well.
• Still no sign of Milan Lucic
• Ryan Strome was good tonight, he needs to convert on some chances, though.
• Montoya played shockingly well tonight. It’s a shame he didn’t get a win, because today’s game makes the conditional 5th, an unconditional 4th.
• I’m pretty much mailing it in at this point. It’s not just the way the season has gone, this winter has dragged on too far and I shouldn’t have to be using a push broom to clear snow off of my car in March.
• 10 games left, still an 8th of the season. Do your worst.