Clearly, Tampa Bay star Steven Stamkos' injury was on everyone's minds. The Boston Bruins were able to get back to playing hockey a lot quicker after it happened.
Patrice Bergeron and Daniel Paille scored 20 seconds apart a few minutes after Stamkos was taken off the ice on a stretcher with a broken right leg, and the Bruins beat the Lightning 3-0 on Monday afternoon.
Stamkos was hurt with 7:11 to play in the second period. He entered the day tied with Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby as the NHL's leading scorer. Stamkos got tied up with Boston defenseman Dougie Hamilton and crashed into the right post.
Tuukka Rask stopped 28 shots for his 18th career shutout and second this season. Jarome Iginla added an empty-net goal with 59 seconds left.
Anders Lindback, playing just his fifth game of the season, made 23 saves for Tampa Bay, which had a four-game winning streak snapped.
''Injuries happen. He's gone a long time in his career without being seriously hurt,'' Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. ''There's no sugarcoating it. He's a huge part of our team. You can make an argument here that if you were going to hand out the MVP in our league now, you can give it to him. Is that a hole in our team? Yes, it is.''
The Bruins jumped ahead with just under three minutes left in the period when Bergeron scored off the rebound of Torey Krug's shot that caromed off the skate of Loui Eriksson.
They made it 2-0 when Paille broke in down the right wing, shifted to his backhand and slipped a shot past Lindback inside the right post. During the play, Tampa Bay defenseman Sami Salo also appeared to hurt his right leg and had trouble making it to the bench. He was briefly assisted by one of the referees on the ice and didn't return in the third period.
''Well, I mean that is a big blow for them. Nobody wants to see that happen to anybody,'' Iginla said. ''He was obviously in a lot of pain and I didn't hear for sure what happened to him, but I imagine it's got to be, for him not to get up, he's a tough player and plays hard and stuff. So he must have been in some serious pain.''
It was Tampa Bay's second loss in nine games. The Lightning came into the day leading the NHL's Atlantic Division, but the loss of Stamkos will be a major blow.
''Now we've got to pick ourselves up and see what we're made of,'' Cooper said. ''It's a tough one for the game. You want to see guys that have `It' and Steven Stamkos has `It.' Now we'll see what we're made of. You talk about a test, this is a test.''
Boston won its third straight.
NOTES: Stamkos' streak of scoring a goal was stopped at six games. . . . Boston won its seventh straight against Tampa Bay. . . . The Bruins' Krug, Dennis Seidenberg, David Krejci, Johnny Boychuk and Matt Bartkowski each bought $2,500 of tickets that were given to military members and their families, who had a chance to meet the players after the game. . . . It was the 80th meeting between the franchises. Boston has won 51. . . . The Bruins wore military-style camouflage jerseys during warm-ups. . . . It was the Lightning's second of a three-game road trip. They play at Montreal on Tuesday night. . . . Boston is off until hosting Columbus on Thursday.
