The Tampa Bay Lightning had high hopes for their first postseason berth in three seasons. They had a solid netminder in Ben Bishop, good defense in players like Radko Gudas and Matt Carle and some of the best offense in the league in players like Ondrej Palat and Steven Stamkos. Fast Forward to Game 4 and the Montreal Canadiens are celebrating a sweep of the Lightning. What changed in that time? Several key factors led to the downfall.

1. Lack of good goaltending:

With only four games left in the regular season the bolts lost starting netminder Ben Bishop in a game against the Maple Leafs. While reaching for a puck that was going very high over his net. Bishop fell awkwardly on his left elbow. He dislocated it and wouldn’t play a single game in the postseason. That left Anders Lindback to take the helm. Before the playoffs Lindback earned the first star of the week and went 3-0-0 in relief on Bishop for the remainder of the regular season. However there were problems beneath the surface. Lindback at times had weak games and when he did play good, the team in front of him rarely did. But come playoffs Lindback had trouble despite stopping 39 of 44 shots in Game 1. In Game 4 Lindback was pulled after allowing two goals that should’ve been easy stops. He was replaced by Kristers Gudlevskis who is remembered for stopping 55 of 57 shots in a 2-1 loss to Canada in the Olympics (he played for team Latvia). But that wouldn’t be enough to stop Montreal as they lost Game 4 by a final score of 4-3 and were swept out of the playoffs.

2. Poor Defense:

Tampa hoped that their elder defenseman, Sami Salo and Eric Brewer would help guide a team of rookies. But instead of helping, they hurt the team. Their age showed as they were too slow to stop several key scoring chances for Montreal. Meanwhile, the rest of the defense had issues as well. Matt Carle had several costly turnovers and the inexperience of players like Radko Gudas and Mark Barberio certainly didn’t help either. Barberio’s biggest mistake was in Game 4 when he left Daniel Briere wide open in front of Tampa’s net. Barberio left his man to check another Montreal player in the corner however that player was already covered, leaving Briere in a great spot to score which he did.

3. Inability to comeback:

Only in Game 1 did Tampa consistently play 60 minutes with full offensive capabilities. While they were able to comeback from being 3-1 down, they constantly found themselves unable to come up with offense at key times and suffered for it.

4. Unfortunate calls and penalties:

The moment that broke the Lightning in this series was the “no goal” call in Game 3. Ryan Callahan fired the puck into the back of the net but the goal was waved off as the ref determined Alex Killorn had interfered with Canadiens’ goalie Carey Price. Many analysts have criticized this call saying that it should’ve been a goal however the officials thought otherwise. The other big call would end the season for the Tampa bay Lightning. With 2:03 remaining in the 3rd period of Game 4, Cedric Paquette took a tripping penalty. Then, with only 43 seconds left in regulation, Max Pacioretty scored and won the series for Montreal. This call was also criticized but it was too late. The Lightning wouldn’t recover.

These key factors led to the downfall of a successful team but this team will only cause more trouble next year. They have a vezina-level goalie in Ben Bishop, the best goal-scorer in the NHL in Steven Stamkos, one of the most promising prospects in Jonathan Drouin and an all-around great team that will only get better with experience. This team’s future looks bright despite their recent failure.