Bolts at Bruins

The Tampa Bay Lightning used to the be the Boston Bruins’ daddy, beating them up in the 2018 playoffs and generally lording themselves over the B’s until being surpassed in the ominous department by the Florida Panthers.

Remember when these guys were the Bruins’ daddy?

The Bolts come into TD Garden today with two regulation losses to face a 3-0 Boston team that, let’s be real, has at least three of their six points courtesy of goaltenders Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo.

It’s Joonas on Jonas today (1 pm, NESN, 98.5 FM The Sports Hub), as Tampa Bay backup Jonas Johansson gets the start while Andrei Vasilevskiy rests up for the Capitals tomorrow night in Washington (7 pm ESPN for that one).

One thing is for sure: Longtime Bolts Coach Jon Cooper believes this is a marathon, not a sprint, so as to exact confidence in his team including his goaltending plan, he is sending his team a message that they are better than the 3-0 Bruins and that the world will right itself by the 82-game mark of the season.

So it’s up to the Bruins to prove something this afternoon, not to keep something perfect going – the home team will be the first to admit this is a work in progress – but to send a message to the rest of the league, especially the Atlantic Division in the wake of the two-game intrastate brawl between the Lightning and the Panthers that was any ol’ time hockey fan’s highlight of the preseason.

I wonder if this is when Jeffrey Viel dresses for his first NHL game of 2025-26. Mark Kastelic and former Lightning winger Tanner Jeannot will be ready to go today, that we know.

FIRST PERIOD

Anthony Cirelli 2, Bruins 0: The actual culprit was turnovers in the middle of the rink, the first resulting in a pretty counterattack play finished by Cirelli just 1:09 in. His second goal, coming at 13:09, was a perfect chip from a bad angle in tight over Korpisalo’s stick, far-side roofer.

In both cases, Bruins coach Marco Sturm (with final change as the home team’s coach), matched up Elias Lindholm, David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie against Cirelli’s line between Jake Guentzel and Gage Concalves.

Sturm’s other match-ups so far in this game:

Casey Mittelstadt (with Pavel Zacha and Viktor Arvidsson) vs. Brayden Point (with Nikita Kucherov and Brandon Hagel)

Fraser Minten (with Tanner Jeannot and Mikey Eyssimont) vs. Yanni Gourde (with Pontus Holmberg and Oliver Bjorkstrand).

Y3K – Sean Kuraly (with Marat Khusnutdinov and Mark Kastelic) vs. Conor Geekie (Morgan’s younger, bigger brother) between Mitchell Chaffee and gigantic RW Curtis Douglas.

So much for faceoffs: The Bruins won 14 out of 18 first-period draws, but Tampa Bay did a great job picking off the neutral-zone lateral pass the Bruins like to use to maintain speed going through the middle of the rink. Several of those wound up on Tampa Bay sticks with Boston forwards going the wrong way, resulting in odd-man rushes. Solid pre-scout by the Lightning staff.

The second period is total chaos, as the Minten-Eyssimont-Jeannot line has been scored on in both of its second-period shifts.

In between, Casey Mittelstadt had gotten the Bruins on the board with a nice shot off a nice pass from Viktor Arvidsson. After Anthony Citrelli’s trio (between Jake Guentzel and Gage Goncalves) lit up the Elias Lindholm (between Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak) line for both first-period goals, Bruins coach Marco Sturm changed the initial matchup of the second period, leading to Mittelstadt’s tally.

Jordan Harris just made a desperate double-effort play in his own end and wound up 2 on 1, taking the shot and scoring to make this a 4-2 game less than six minutes into the period.

Andrew Peeke gets a knockdown at the penalty box, but a TV timeout dissolves the ensuing scrum.

Holmberg to the penalty box at 6:41, Bruins to the powerplay…

Mark Kastelic hits Emil Lilleberg, who wards off the contact and gets down the ice for a bad-angle shot that Korpisalo deflects out of play, giving the Lightning an attacking-zone faceoff. Lilleberg, of course, is the big, strong, young defenseman from Norway whose high crosscheck concussed Kastelic and, for all intents and purposes, knock the Bruin’s season off the rails.

Lo and behold, Lilleberg is going to the box for holding Eyssimont, who is going for roughing so it’s 4v4 out on the ice.

Zacha wins an O-zone draw from Gourde on the 4v4, and Morgan Geekie rips the puck past Johansson to make this a one-goal game (TBL 4-3).

Holmberg gets another minor for tripping at 14:24 of the second. Bruins back on the PP…

Khusnutdinov hits the post.

Zadorov throws a big hit at the siren, scrum ensues. Lilleberg and Zadorov are barking at each other, Mittelstadt is stripped of his helmet.

Bruins played a much better second period, though it began with two against against in a matter of 3:37. Fortunately for the Bruins, Mittelstadt stuck one in there in between. The Bruins, having picked up their general pace and intensity, taking better care of the puck through the middle of the rink via support, would dig out of the 4-1 hole with two more goals, coming at 5:31 from Harris and 11:35 from Morgan Geekie.

Sturm reverted to his original matchups, pitting the Geekie-Lindholm-Pastrnak line against Cirelli, Guentzel and Goncalves, who had torched them in the opening 20. Geekie’s goal was on the 4v4 after Zacha won the draw against Gourde.

Shots through two: 23-18

THIRD PERIOD

Brandon Hagel made a nice cutoff of Elias Lindholm’s relay attempt and set up a close call that just missed the post.

Sturm is sticking with his matchups.

Pastrnak took a hard hit in the ribs from Cirelli, who was perfectly positioned to defend a move Pastrnak had planned upon receiving a pass in the left circle.

The Lightning has been stingy in the neutral zone, but Goncalves gets caught tripping Arvidsson, who was streaking through the middle in hopes of collecting a long Zadorov pass.

The Bruins, who have had little going in the way of O-zone time, get a much-needed powerplay with 13:55 remaining in regulation time, down 4-3 to Tampa Bay.

Jeannot goes to the box for interfering (holding) with the Tampa Bay defender at 10:03. Bolts to the PP…

Must-kill for the Bruins, and they get it. Jeannot throws the body at defenseman Erik Cernak as he arrives on the sprint across from the penalty box.

Bruins have 7:10 to work with, down 4-3.

O-zone draw and a high-zone play gets the Bruins into trouble. Holmberg in alone, not really, as his shot is deflected over the glass.

Cirelli’s line hems in Minten’s, as the Lightning keep winning along the walls. Korpisalo swallows a shot from the left point, and the Bruins get their change. Minten had a chance to clear but decided to chip up the halfwall to Eyssimont, who was pinched off.

Mason Lohrei played some strong one-goal-down hockey but got caught behind on an uncalled hold. The Bruins survived, got Korpisalo out, and Sturm went with Mittelstadt’s line on the O-zone draw. He came back with Pastrnak, and he sprawled to stop an empty-net goal. Pastrnak then ran over a Tampa Bay forward on what looked like a second ENG attempt that would go but did not, and the Bruins got more chances to tie.

Point and Arvidsson off for roughing with 23.1 seconds left. Sturm calls timeout. The players come back, and Jon Cooper uses his timeout. That’s it for timeouts.

Lightning win the draw, ice the puck. 15.1 left.

Cirelli delays, Lindholm wins the draw, McAvoy’s shot gets through but wide of the left post. Cernak to the box with 8.1 seconds. Teams converge at benches, but there are no timeouts.

No changes. Tampa gains possession, clears, that’s it.

The Bruins were sloppy against better sticks and a talented, determined team. The home team worked this into a nailbiter, but a loss was inevitable and the Bruins suffer their first after three wins.

Lightning (1-2-0) win and head to Washington, while the 3-1 Bruins head west for a weeklong road trip that will begin Thursday night in Vegas (10 pm ET).

Drive safely, it’s nasty out there.