The cracks were bound to appear at some point. When a team is ravaged by injuries to the extent that the Tampa Bay Lightning have been, the magic wears off eventually. It’s usually nothing drastic, but small little fissures that appear and keep a team from winning. From an overall perspective, the Lightning played fairly well in their 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night, but one moment, one little error in judgement, led to the game-deciding goal.
The Bolts had the lead early as Oliver Bjorkstrand jammed home his own rebound for a power-play goal thirteen minutes into the first period.
Oliver Bjorkstrand [5] (Anthony Cirelli, Jake Guentzel) Power Play, 1-0 Lightning
"SCORREEE!!! BJORKSTRAND!!!!!" Bjorkstrand grabs his own rebound to open the scoring on the power play! #LAKvsTBL 🎧: boltsaud.io/live 📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) December 18, 2025 at 7:48 PM
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The Lightning pushed to double the lead, and almost had their second goal at the buzzer, but Anton Forsberg, starting his second game in as many nights, lunged across the crease to deny Dominic James with his glove.
At the opposite end of the ice, Andrei Vasilevskiy made his return to action after missing seven games with an undisclosed injury. He was solid in the first, stopping all eight shots in the first, but five minutes into the second he let one get by that normally he stops with ease. The Kings found a gap in the neutral zone that let allowed Adrian Kempe to enter the zone with speed. Just inside the blue line he snapped a wrister that went just inside Charle-Edouard D’Astous’ leg and beat Vasilevskiy on the glove side.
Adrian Kempe [12] (Anze Kopitar, Corey Perry) 1-1
Los Angeles goal! Scored by Adrian Kempe with 14:39 remaining in the 2nd period. Assisted by Anze Kopitar and Corey Perry. Tampa Bay: 1 Los Angeles: 1 #LAKvsTBL #GoBolts #GoKingsGo
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) December 18, 2025 at 8:25 PM
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Ten minutes later, that small crack appeared. The Lightning had been controlling play fairly well and had the puck in the Kings’ zone. Pontus Holmberg had possession of the puck and curled back to the blue line and fed the puck back to the blue line. This play is a staple in the Tampa Bay offense.
The defender at the blue line was D’Astous. Not only is he a rookie with just 26 games of experience. He was a rookie playing on his off-side. With the return of Ryan McDonagh, the Lightning opted to send down the right-shot Steven Santini and keep D’Astous and Declan Carlile. So it’s a rookie playing on his off-side, what could go wrong?
Well, a subtle little change in direction. As Holmberg looked to pass the puck back, it appeared that he was anticipating that D’Astous would cut to the inside of the ice. Instead, the rookie peeled to the outside, and left a gaping hole at the point.
Kempe pounced on the puck and was off on a breakaway. A quick deke beat Vasilevskiy, and just like that it was 2-1 Kings. The injuries not only sap a line-up of experience and talent, but also of chemistry. Constantly mixing lines and pairings makes it hard for teammates to stay on the same page.
There was still plenty of time left in the game, but the Kings are a tough defensive team, especially on the road. The Lightning pushed but couldn’t equalize. Four power plays came and went with some chances but no goals. Brayden Point had a shot from the slot that was perfectly placed just over Forsberg’s pads, but the goaltender nicked it was the bottom edge of his glove to keep it out. Jake Guentzel fed Bjorkstrand with a cross-crease saucer pass that the forward tried to sneak through the arm and the body, but Forsberg was able to clamp down on it. Another shot beat him, but he swept it off the goalline before it crossed.
The offense was short-handed with Brandon Hagel out of the line-up. Nikita Kucherov was a late scratch as he took warm-ups, but was held out due to an illness. In the third, Anthony Cirelli took a hit behind the play by Kevin Fiala and didn’t return to action. Coach JonCooper didn’t have a status update after the game.
After the game, Coach Cooper pontificated about his team’s lack of execution. He didn’t question their effort, which he pointed out generated 77 shot attempts, including a 29-5 edge in the third period. He pointed to the team’s inability to execute at home as the biggest factor in the game, and when they did manage to, Forsberg made the stop.
Zemgus Girgensons spoke about playing with “more urgency” and Ryan McDonagh, back after more than a month, talked about needing to make it a tougher place to play for opponents. It’s now four losses in a row at home with the Carolina Hurricanes on tap for Saturday.
