Well, that sucked.

The Leafs dropped a game that appeared to be completely in their control through most of the first two frames, coughing up a 3-0 lead to fall to the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in regulation.

The Leafs were in control of this game, which makes the loss particularly frustrating. As frustrating a loss can be with your spot in the playoffs all-but guaranteed, that is, but losing to a potential first-round opponent in ugly fashion isn’t particularly fun.

We open the scoring with yet another goal from JVR:

Make that 32 on the season for JVR. Marner and Carrick draw assists. 1-0.

The Leafs would go on to outplay and outscore the Lightning in the first, outshooting them 12-6 in the process.

With Nikita Kucherov in the box carrying over from the first, guess who it was in front of the net…

James van Riemsdyk knows just where to lurk to score yet again. His 33rd of the season makes it a 2-0 game, and this thing is off to a great start.

The goal was followed by a couple of ten-bell saves by Frederik Andersen, who looked poised early on after his return from injury. He’d make another great stop on a break by Anthony Cirelli to keep the Lightning off the board.

And later in the period:

A flashy little snipe from Hyman, his 14th on the season, to make it 3-0 good guys.

Viktor Hedman would score with 3:20 left in the frame to put the Lightning on the board. But who cares, right?

Can we get a do-over on this one?

A mixture of lazy line-changing, an inopportune bounce off of Morgan Rielly and a partial flub by Frederik Andersen was all it would take to derail this game in the third frame. The Lightning would score four unanswered goals over a span of 12:36 dating back to the second period to steal this game out from under the Leafs. A deflating end to what started as a fun night.

And then what happened?

Wise words from a wise man.

My least favorite episode.

The Buds are back at it on Thursday night in Nashville. Let’s hope for a better result.