“Rotten” Lightning get “taught a lesson” in to loss Blue Jackets

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
November 25, 2016

TAMPA, Fla. – The scoreboard in the third period on Friday showed the Lightning had a chance.

In truth, though, they never really deserved to be in that position.

So the 5-3 loss to Columbus at Amalie Arena proved to be very misleading, even as Tampa Bay tied the game less than four minutes in to the third period.

“We were just red rotten from start to finish, that was it,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “I don’t even know how else to put it. It’s 82 games and you can chalk one up to a stinker. We got taught a lesson tonight by a team that worked way harder than us. We wanted to skill the game and not get in anybody’s way and not get to any area where you have to pay the price. That’s what happens.
“I know the score was 3-3, but the right team won.’’

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That was clearly evident from the early stages of the game as the Blue Jackets came out hungry, looking to rebound from a shutout loss at home in the previous game. Looking to get to the hard areas of the ice around the blue paint, Columbus forced their way in to those spots and had a 2-0 lead before Tampa Bay even registered a shot on goal as Alex Wennberg scored from the low slot and Nick Foligno stood at the right post on the power play.

The Lightning, meanwhile, didn’t register a shot on goal until the 10:05 mark and finished the first period with only four shots and just six shot attempts.
Even through all that, the Lightning still found a way to stay in the game and cut the deficit to a goal on Nikita Kucherov’s 11th of the season at 8:33.
But Columbus answered that 29 seconds later on Josh Anderson’s goal coming from crashing the net.

Then when Ondrej Palat tied the game 3-3, scoring during a delayed call 3:37 in to the third period, the Blue Jackets again answered less than a minute later when Wennberg, who lost the faceoff, won a puck battle in the corner against Jason Garrison and fed an open Brandon Saad in the low slot after Luke Witkowski took a step away from the crease, creating the open chance just 57 seconds after Palat’s goal
Victor Hedman would lose control of the puck out in front of his own net while on the power play, handing the puck right to Cam Atkinson in the slot for a shorthanded goal at 11:13 to squelch any thought of the Lightning stealing any points out of the game.

It was a fitting result coming from the work put in by Tampa Bay.

“We start to feel good about ourselves (winning five of six) and then we forget how we got there and end up taking step back,’’ Cooper said. “We haven’t had too many of these. Maybe this and the Rangers (a 6-1 loss on Oct. 30), so at 20 plus games we’ve had two stinkers and unfortunately this is what happens. But we have a good group, won a few more here than we lost and that’s for a reason. We just have to get back to work. Take what happened today, take it to heart and . . . a couple of lessons learned here and let’s move on.’’

Postgame notes: Tampa Bay fell to 13-1-1 this season when scoring three or more goals. … C Tyler Johnson extended his scoring streak to six games with an assist on Nikita Kucherov’s goal. … C Brian Boyle returned to the lineup after missing Wednesday’s game against Philadelphia. … D Luke Witkowski recorded his first career NHL point with an assist on Jason Garrison’s first goal of the season. … D Anton Stralman took part in the morning skate wearing a red no-contact jersey, missing his seventh consecutive game with an upper body injury. … RW J.T. Brown missed his second game with an upper body injury. … RW Erik Condra was scratched. … G Ben Bishop fell to 7-7 on the season..

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