The Winnipeg Jets beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in overtime at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Thursday night, snapping the Lightning's season-long winning streak at five games.

As will be the case in most of the games remaining on the Lightning's schedule, since they're going head-to-head against so many of the teams they're chasing, this was another four-point game. The Lightning had a chance to pull within two points of their closest division rival (in the standings, if not geographically) but ended the night five behind instead.

"It's obviously disappointing, but we still got up another point and we gotta move forward...We gained another point on Washington, if you want to look at it that way. Six behind and we still gotta play them three times.But I don't want to look at it that way...it's disappointing but not frustrating" - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

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The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Washington Capitals 4-3 in overtime at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Tuesday night.

As the Lightning return from the all-star break and resume the task of attempting to climb back into contention, their first order of business was to face off against the Southeast division-leading Washington Capitals. The game represented a key four point swing as the outcome would find the Lightning anywhere from seven to eleven points out of first place at the conclusion.

For their part, the Lightning are adapting a one-step-at-a-time approach to that task. Not just when it comes to the standings but within each individual game...like tonight.

"I kept saying on the bench, 'be in the moment, be in the moment; it's not what just happened, it's what we're gonna do next. We pushed, we didn't hold back. We weren't scared to lose; we were hungry to win. " - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

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The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2 Tuesday night at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, their fourth win in a row.

In a season that has been marked by a search for consistency, one thing you've been able to count on fairly regularly is for the Lightning to play up or down to the level of whatever opponent they're facing. Good, solid efforts against league powerhouses have frequently been offset by dismal, sloppy outings against non-contenders. So coming off a three game stretch featuring wins over the defending world champions and two teams jostling for playoff spots in the Western Conference, how would the Bolts fare against the team with the worst record in the league in the last game before the extended All-Star break?

Not great maybe, but certainly not too bad.

"I don't think we'd like to have the break right now in terms of how we're rolling in games, but if you're going to get a break, you want to finish on a winning note." - Martin St. Louis

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The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Boston Bruins 5-3 in front of a sell-out crowd of 19,204 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Tuesday night.

The routine the last few games has featured the Lightning falling behind early, due to being called for a penalty in the first two minutes, fighting valiantly but ultimately coming up just short. And tonight, more dependable than a delivery from Dominos, Bruno Gervais found himself in the box on a high sticking call at 1:58, which allowed the Bruins to go right down and...

Wait...what now?

"It was nice to get that kill, and kill their momentum and not let them get anything from that. Luckily, we built some momentum off of that" - Steven Stamkos

"You gotta be sharp in all areas at the start. You gotta be ready to kill penalties, you gotta be ready for the power play. Just being ready in general." - Dominic Moore

If the Lightning were mouthing the words "here we go again", at least nobody heard them saying it aloud.

"If I'm asking my players to put things behind, we have to put things behind too, as leaders. And right away, we said, ' yes, we're gonna kill this one, and we're gonna fight it off and we're gonna block shots'. So we kept on talking about what we're gonna do, not what can happen against us, but what we're gonna do. And we did it and our goaltender was part of it too. So it's all about the actions. Your words become your actions and your actions become your character and your character becomes your habits. And so it's important that we take care of our words." - head coach Guy Boucher

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The Vancouver Canucks beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4 in a shootout at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Tuesday night.

In a game that might have had many fans groaning before it even started, with the struggling Dwayne Roloson making the start in net, the Lightning hung in quite well and made a relatively impressive showing against one of the NHL's best.

"We have to be positive. We're playing one of the top teams in the league. We've got some injuries and these guys are a powerhouse; they're Stanley Cup contenders. We came back twice from two goals. That's a character comeback...We got to take the positive out of this one. It would have been easy to get nothing tonight against a team like that." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

"They don't look like an 11th place team." - Vancouver goalie Cory Schneider

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The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-2 in front of a sell-out crowd of 19,204 at the newly re-named Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa Saturday night.

Out with the old, in with the new? Not so fast. A Tampa Bay Lightning team that was probably praying for the start of the new year a little more than two weeks ago is ending 2011 on a hot streak. Having now won three straight games and four of the last six, collecting nine out of a possible 12 points in the process, the Bolts have to feel good about their recent efforts.

"I feel better because the results are there, but the reality is I kept on saying it, you could see it coming. We were playing better and better and better and better. It was just a matter of results at that point, and getting some home games. You know, some teams right now, they're looking great in the standings. Well, they got the opposite. They got six games at home more than the other teams that they've played. So let's see what they do when they go out west and they go back and forth on their trips and see where we are at that point." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

"We finally played a good complete game. That was the first one in a while. the last couple games we hadn't started out the way we wanted to, but tonight I thought our five-on-five play was pretty solid." - Steven Stamkos

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The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 at the St. Pete Times Forum Thursday night.

A sell-out crowd of 19,204, featuring vocal fans of both the Lightning and the Canadiens watched a back-and-forth battle between teams with similar records in the Eastern Conference. The Lightning rallied from a two-goal deficit to get the win, their second in a row and fourth in their last six games.

"It's extremely positive. We've just got nine points out of the last twelve points possible, last six games, and that includes three on the road and three at home. So we've stepped it up and that's also done without some key guys." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

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The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals by a score of 1-0.

I could go on about how the game went, some of the statistics, or some of the details of the match. But, really, none of that matters. What matters is the final score, and it wasn't in the Lightning's favor.

So here's what I'm going to say instead.

What a ride, huh? That was one hell of a season. No one expected the Lightning to make it past the first round, let alone make it to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Who thought they'd make it past the Pittsburgh Penguins? Especially down three game to one at one point? Sure, they didn't have Evgen Malkin or Sidney Crosby, but they were still a formidable team to beat.

Then who thought they'd take the Washington Capitals next? How crazy is that? And they did have their stars in the lineup for most of the series, too; Alexander Semin, Alex Ovechkin, and Mike Green all played.

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