Lightning Round: The Bolts finish the regular season with a below .500 record on the road for the first time since 2012-13

This regular season has been a big challenge for the Tampa Bay Lightning. During the previous offseason the team lost some important pieces, which obviously negatively impacted the team, making it less deep. With  yesterday's loss to the Ottawa Senators, the Lightning finished their road campaign this regular season with a 18-22-1 record and a .451 point percentage, making it the worst record on the road since the 2012-13 season, when the Lightning recorded just six wins and a .292 during the shortened season.

The Lightning's .451 on the road is the 24th result in the league this season. The Bolts also rank quite low in goals for per game (23rd with 2.83 GF/GP), while allowing 3.54 goals against per game (11th worst result in the NHL). Their underlying advanced stats on the road aren't impressive either, as the Bolts are under the water in both Corsi For (49.52 CF%) and expected goal share (47.46 xGF%).

With that said, the Lightning are still pretty strong at home and even the latest slump hadn't stripped them of their second spot in the league. With .756 at home so far, the Lightning are only trailing to the Boston Bruins, who are playing in a league of their own this season. At Amalie Arena the Lightning are scoring at a higher rate than their opponents (1st in the league with 4.00 GF/GP) and their power play is also extremely dangerous (2nd with 30.9 PP%).

With the Lightning starting their playoff on the road against the Toronto Maple Leafs, their away record is very concerning. The Lightning lost the only game they played against the Leafs in Toronto this season and the Leafs themselves are pretty strong at home, only trailing to the Bruins and the Lightning in point percentage in those games.

In his postgame interview yesterday, Jon Cooper also criticized his team, saying that he's very surprised with how the team is playing since clinching their playoff spot.

Lightning Links

The Lightning allowed seven goals against the Senators in the second game in a row last night, while Brayden Point scored his 49th goal of the season and Brian Elliott might played his last game in the Lightning jersey [Raw Charge]

The Tampa Bay Lightning scored three times on the power play, yet it was not nearly enough as the Ottawa Senators had seven different players find the back of the net in their 7-4 win on Saturday night. Brian Elliott, in what could be his last game as a member of the Lightning, made 33 saves on 39 shots against the team he broke into the league with back in the 2007-08 season.

Mikhail Sergachev missed the yesterday's game due to a birth of his child. Brandon Hagel, Erik Cernak, Anthony Cirelli and Pat Maroon returned to the lineup.

According to Elliotte Friedman, Tanner Jeannot's injury might not be as serious as it expected to be, but he's still questionable for the first-round series against Toronto.

Victor Hedman played in his 973rd game as the Lightning player, surpassing Martin St. Louis on the list of players with most games for the franchise.

With two assists last night, Nikita Kucherov recorded his second 80-assist season in the NHL.

The Syracuse Crunch lost to the Laval Rocket on Saturday night.

The Orlando Solar Bears also lost their second game in a row to the Greenville Swamp Rabbits this weekend.

Hockey News

The results of the first-ever 16-game night in the NHL.

The Quinnipiac Bobcats defeated Minnesota in the Frozen Four final game last night at Amalie Arena to win their first-ever National Championship.

Connor McDavid became just the sixth player to reach 60 goals and 150 points in a single season.

Sidney Crosby reached the 1500-point mark last night.

The New Jersey Devils signed Luke Hughes to a three-year, entry-level contract.