Say what you will about the Tampa Bay Lightning, but they don’t do things in small doses. It’s all or nothing for them. They started the season losing six of seven. Then they won fifteen out of eighteen games. After that it was seven losses out of nine. Then they were the best team in hockey with twenty wins out of their next twenty-two. Now, after a 4-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets they are the proud owners of a four-game losing streak.
Brayden Point had the lone tally for the Lightning as he scored his 15th goal of the season while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 26 of 29 shots in his third straight loss. Unlike some of their previous losses, it was a fairly close contest for most of the night. Point’s early third-period goal, which came on the power play, brought the Bolts within a goal after Morgan Barron and Mark Scheifele scored in the second period.
Unfortunately for the Lightning, Gus Nyquist scored less than four minutes after Point’s marker to reestablish the two goal lead. Kyle Connor scored into the empty net to make it a 4-1 final behind Conor Hellebuyck’s 26 saves.
As has been the case for much of this losing streak, the Lightning’s mistakes aided and abetted the Winnipeg offense. The goal first came off of the rush after a lost puck battle in the offensive zone. That sprung a two-on-one and old friend Cole Koepke’s shot off of Andrei Vasilevskiy’s pads ended up being the perfect pass to Morgan Barron. A turnover at the offensive blueline by Darren Raddysh turned into an odd-man rush that Scheifele finished off with a wicked one-timer from a bad angle. The Gus Nyquist goal started on a turnover in the defensive zone by Pontus Holmberg, one of the more responsible Lightning forwards this season.
It was another 11/7 night for the Bolts with Declan Carlile returning to the line-up in place of Emil Lilleberg. Coach Jon Cooper had the lines in a blender as eight different combinations saw at least two minutes of 5v5 time together. Unfortunately, none of them really clicked against a Winnipeg team that has now won four in a row, primarily by shutting down team’s offenses. It had to be especially frustrating for the Lightning to struggle to maintain any sort of offense considering both Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn weren’t in the line-up for roster-related reasons (rumor is they’re on their way to Buffalo).
After the game Coach Cooper admitted that the team was “in one of those ruts right now,” but also referred to it as a “good test” as well.
“Sometimes you just got to learn the hard way, and that’s where we are right now” he told reporters after the game. Adversity can strengthen a team and it’s better that they go through this now rather than in the playoffs.
If there are any positives to pull from a loss it’s that Vasilevskiy looked a little more like Vasilevskiy. He had a strong first period. There wasn’t much he could do on the first goal, and the second goal was a goal-scorer’s type of goal. Nyquist’s goal is one he’d likely want to have back as the shot beat him glove side, but he had a pretty good look at it.
The Bolts will get two cracks at ending the losing streak this weekend as they have back-to-back games against Toronto and Buffalo on Saturday and Sunday. If nothing else, they’ll have the uncertainty of the trade deadline behind them and they will know what the team looks like moving forward.
Pretty Colors
