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 But don't tell that to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Lightning, without injured scoring star Steven Stamkos going on
23 games now, scored all of their goals in a span of 12 minutes to
beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.
The Lightning improved their record against the West to 9-3-2, the
best of record by far of any Eastern Conference team.
Overall, the Western Conference is 134-65-28 against the East.
"I'm not really sure why we do well against the West, but I'm really
happy we do," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "Sometimes our speed
takes teams by surprise."
West and East teams don't see much of each other. Tampa Bay's last
visit to Vancouver was more than three years ago.
"You can watch as much tape as you want, but you can't gauge a team
until you see them," Cooper said. "Games against the West, there are
two points on the table. I don't want to call them free points, but
they're out there and you can grab them.
"And it makes us a better team playing West teams."
In the other dressing room, left winger Daniel Sedin said it was
Vancouver's worst game of the season.
"He assessed it correctly," Canucks coach John Tortorella said. "You
could see it right away that we were out of synch."
After a scoreless first period, the teams combined for five goals in
the second.
Four were scored in the final 4:33 of the period, three of them by
Tampa Bay. The last one came with 2.6 seconds remaining and the
Lightning on a power play.
Vancouver left winger Chris Higgins' attempt to clear the puck off
the boards instead of firing it straight down the ice was
intercepted by Tampa Bay defenseman Radko Gudas inside the Canucks'
zone.
Two passes later, it was on right winger Nikita Kucherov's stick,
and he blasted a slap shot past Canucks goalie Eddie Lack from the
faceoff dot for a Lightning lead to start the third.
It capped a hectic final few minutes.
Vancouver center Brad Richardson's wrist shot on a partial breakaway
beat Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop to the short side at 11:25 to open
the scoring.
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Tampa Bay center Valtteri Filppula, on pace for a 30-goal
season with 15 to date at the 40-game mark, beat Lack from the
faceoff circle 22 seconds after the Canucks scored.
Twenty seconds later, with Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa
caught on a pinch in the Lightning zone, center Tyler Johnson
converted left winger Ondrej Palat's pass on a two-on-one to
make it 2-1 for Tampa Bay.
However, to the ire of Cooper, who thought icing should have
been whistled, the Canucks' fourth line tied things again just
14 seconds after Johnson's goal. Center Zac Dalpe collected his
first goal of the season on Bishop's doorstep.
"I disagree with ... I don't know what happened, but we answered
it," Cooper said.
It looked as if the teams would retreat to their dressing rooms
with a 2-2 score until Higgins erred on his clearing attempt,
leading to Kucherov's goal. At the time, Canucks defenseman
Yannick Weber was in the penalty box for hooking Johnson on a
partial breakaway.
Lightning center Alex Killorn made it 4-2 at 7:28 of the third
period.
"I know Western teams seem pretty big and play tough," Killorn
said. "We have a mindset that it's going to be tough, especially
when we go into their buildings."
Bishop made 28 saves to earn the win. Lack stopped 29 shots.
NOTES: Canucks C Ryan Kesler, who is from Livonia, Mich., was
selected to the U.S. Olympic team. ... Vancouver rookie G Eddie
Lack, in his second straight start since Roberto Luongo got
injured Dec. 22, is 7-3-1 with a 2.02 goals-against average,
eighth best in the NHL, a .924 save percentage. Before
Wednesday's loss, was 5-0-1 in his previous six games with two
shutouts. ... The Canucks reassigned C Jeremy Welsh to AHL
Utica. ... Vancouver's power play is among the worst in the
league, but the Canucks lead the NHL in penalty-killing at 89.2
percent. ... Before Wednesday, Tampa Bay had one win in
Vancouver during its 21-year-history. That victory came in the
Lightning's previous visit to Rogers Arena, on Dec. 11, 2010.
... D Sami Salo made his first trip back to Vancouver since he
signed with the Lightning two summers ago. Salo played nine
season in Vancouver. ... Lightning assistant coach Rick Bowness,
an assistant in Vancouver for seven seasons before being fired
at the end of last season, also made his return.
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