BOSTON — Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos was given a 10-minute misconduct when his stick landed in the crowd during the overtime period of Thursday night’s game against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden.
Stamkos initially broke his stick and appeared to be frustrated that the Lightning weren’t able to capitalize on a 4-on-3 power play late in overtime. Part of the broken stick landed in the Tampa Bay bench and Stamkos flung the other half into the stands out of frustration, resulting in an automatic penalty.
“I don’t know how many sticks I’ve broken in that situation this year,” Stamkos said. “Then I’m obviously a little frustrated that it broke in that situation and to see it go over the glass I knew right away that that’s a (10-minute misconduct penalty).
“It’s kind of just a little frustrating, we had an opportunity (on the power play) and a couple good looks. (Nikita Kucherov) had a great look and (Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask) made a big save, so obviously we would have liked to score one but, you know obviously tough one to swallow. We’ll take the point.”
Stamkos was not eligible for the shootout as a result of the penalty. Tampa Bay failed to score in its two shootout attempts and lost when Boston scored twice with goals from Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand.
Even though Stamkos is regularly among the NHLÂ leaders in goals scored, he isn’t a phenomenal shootout scorer and is 0-for-3 this season.
