It may be tough to believe, but the Bruins quite literally can’t win ’em all.

Especially when it’s against the team that’s run the Eastern Conference for the last three seasons.

Squared up against the Lightning for the third time this season, the Atlantic Division rivals engaged in what was their nastiest head-to-head yet, with post-whistle skirmishes beyond normalized by the second period. Bruins defenseman Derek Forbort had some blood dripping from his nose, as did the Bolts’ Ross Colton. The sides traded collisions into their Vezina-worthy netminders, and a fan even tried to lick Brad Marchand through the glass.

This game had it all.

And it was a reminder of what’s ahead for the Bruins in their pursuit of a Stanley Cup later this year.

Teams like the Lightning are too good and too experienced to simply roll over and die. And any playoff series with them will come with games like the one the Bruins experienced Thursday night, where any and every inch of ice required a fight, and with each rush carrying more weight than the one that came before.

Here are the 98.5 The Sports Hub (dot com) 3 Stars of the game from a loss at Amalie Arena…

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• No. 3 Star: Linus Ullmark

  

  Jan 26, 2023; Tampa, Florida, USA; Boston Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark (35) defends Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos (91) during the first period at Amalie Arena. (Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports)

• It may have been a loss for the Black and Gold, but you can’t say that B’s goaltender Linus Ullmark didn’t do his part to straight-up will the Bruins to a victory. In fact, you could make a legitimate case that Ullmark owns almost zero percent of the blame for how this game went for the Bruins.

  The Boston penalty kill inexplicably vacated the front of the house on the Brandon Hagel goal that put Tampa Bay on the first period, Ullmark and the Bruins got boned by a premature puck drop on the second goal, and Ullmark was taken out of the play by Brandon Carlo on the goal that held as the game winning.

  Not exactly what you’d call the easiest of nights to navigate through as a goalie.

  Oh, and Ullmark made plenty of high-end stops around all those goals against.

  Ullmark was at his best in the second period, too, with a big-time breakaway save on a Brayden Point, and then a pair of brilliant stops with the Bruins down a man and marksman Steven Stamkos out there hunting for a goal. They were just a couple of highlights in what finished as a 13-for-13 second-period effort from Ullmark.

• Huge stop by Linus Ullmark on Brayden Point: pic.twitter.com/ueSxKS020V

  — Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) January 27, 2023

• Tagged with the loss behind a 32-of-35 effort, Thursday’s loss was just the fourth defeat of Ullmark’s 2022-23 campaign, and it was actually the first time that Ullmark had allowed at least three goals in a loss.

  It was also Ullmark’s first loss to the Lightning since joining the Bruins in 2021. Ullmark is now 3-1-0 with a .930 save percentage in his four head-to-heads with Tampa since jumping to the Bruins from Buffalo.

• No. 2 Star: Andrei Vasilevskiy

  

  Jan 26, 2023; Tampa, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) against the Boston Bruins during the period at Amalie Arena. (Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports)

• Once a nightmare-inducing sight for the Bruins, Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy had looked oddly human against the Bruins over the last calendar year or so.

  Actually, Vasilevskiy found himself on a significant losing streak — by his standards, anyway — against the Bruins, with five straight losses (0-4-1) against Boston entering Thursday’s showdown.

  But the 28-year-old did his best to remind everyone that he’s still the best goalie in the world until proven otherwise, as he stonewalled the Bruins in a 37-of-39 performance in the crease.

  “Vasilevskiy played great, too,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery admitted after the loss. “He made a lot of high quality saves as well.”

• Access DENIED ⛔️@BioSteelSports | #GoBolts pic.twitter.com/N5MTrU3uzE

  — Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) January 27, 2023

• Vasilevskiy also continued what’s been a theme of sorts when it comes to teams beating the Bruins.

  Entering Thursday’s contest, opposing goaltenders who have beat the Bruins in 2022-23 had combined for a .938 save percentage on the season. Seattle’s Martin Jones was the last netminder to beat the Bruins, and he had to get that done with a 27-of-27 performance. And with Vasilevskiy’s 37-of-39 added to the board, that save percentage bumped up to .939. That means that goalies have had to post a save percentage that would qualify as the best single-season save percentage in league history to defeat these Bruins.

  Not much more you can do other than tip your hat.

• No. 1 Star: Nikita Kucherov

  

  TAMPA, FLORIDA – JANUARY 26: Nikita Kucherov #86 of the Tampa Bay Lightning celebrates a goal in the third period during a game aagainst the Boston Bruins at Amalie Arena on January 26, 2023. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images )

• It had been an oddly quiet Bruins-Lightning season series for Nikita Kucherov.But if you had your, ‘it’s quiet… too quiet’ suspicions regarding that fact, Kucherov validated your feelings Thursday night with a three-point effort that saw him factor in on all three of Tampa’s goals in the win.

  Kucherov had the primary helper on the Hagel goal that made it 1-0 through 20 minutes of play, he scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period (though it was later changed to Brayden Point’s goal as the official scorers say it deflected off Point’s skate), and he had an assist on Victor Hedman’s game-winning marker.

  Just an absolute pain in the ass for the Bruins.

• THERE GOES THAT MAN
  
  Kuch grabs his 20th of the season!! pic.twitter.com/hEB7YP43sl

  — Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) January 27, 2023

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