Lightning sent reeling following a 5-1 loss to Vancouver

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
December 8, 2016

TAMPA, Fla. – The Lightning have endured difficult stretches in the past few seasons, even amidst all the success.

But this stretch, the one Tampa Bay is experiencing right now just feels different.

Thursday’s 5-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks at Amalie Arena might be one of the most difficult regular season setbacks to explain.

For the final 56 minutes of the game, everything just felt . . . off.

{mprestriction ids=”1,2″}

That was noticeable on two inexcusable goals – the first as Ben Bishop tried to corral with his glove a puck that caromed off the end boards that he ended up pushing in to his own net to put Tampa Bay in a 2-0 hole and then an inexplicable 2-on-1 given up in the dying seconds of the second period that resulted in a 4-1 deficit heading in to the third period.

The end result was blowout loss to one of the bottom teams in the league and one of the lowest scoring teams in the league.
For the fifth time in the past seven games and ninth time this season in 28 games, Tampa Bay allowed four or more goals in a game. That happened 22 times in 82 games last season.

Only once all of last season did Tampa Bay lose by a four-goal margin, a 5-1 loss to Ottawa on Feb. 8, 2016. The previous season it happened on three occasions. Already four times this season the Lightning have lost by four or more goals.



“I don’t even remember losing games by four goals, ever,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “Maybe one a year. We’re losing them at once a week now. It comes down to defending. You look back at the end of the game and say, ‘Oh, well they had 41 shots and this was going on and this goalie made a big save, whatever.’ We still gave up five. That doesn’t matter. Even if we do get a couple of these to go in, so we lose 5-3. You still lose. The harder guys are trying to score, it’s just the more it’s hurting. In the end, we have to protect.”

Ben Bishop discusses a 5-1 loss to Vancouver

Coming off a three day gap between games for the first time this season, the Lightning showed no signs of rust, coming out with jump and pinning the Canucks inside their own zone and getting the first five shots on goal. But Vancouver got one chance early on as Jack Skille made a great play an center ice to corral a pass that was behind him and then outmuscle his way past Nikita Kucherov to the net to put Vancouver up 1-0 on the Canucks first shot of the game.

Tampa Bay never seemed to recover after that.

” I thought we came out, we were outstanding and they come down, one shot, it’s in the net (and) it seemed that was it,” Cooper said. “The little bit of adversity hits, which I didn’t think was any at all. There’s 55 minutes left and I thought we were playing hard. Guys were doing some good things and then we just kind of stopped. They obviously get the second one, it’s a lucky one and then we really went down.”

And for whatever reason, the Lightning never really were able to get back up again. There was a brief burst late in the second after Jonathan Drouin scored and Valtteri Filppula was stopped on a shorthanded breakaway that momentum started to build, but Jayson Megna smashed any hopes of a rally, converting a 2-on-1 with one second remaining in the second period to regain the three-goal lead, chase Bishop from the the game and send the Lightning to another lopsided outcome.

”Looking at it right now, it’s always tough to go through this stretch,” defenseman Victor Hedman said. “This is what kind of stretch is going to make you stronger throughout the rest of the season. We just got to be able to find a way to work yourself out of it and I think we’re progressing and we’re doing a lot of good things. We’re just not getting the results, so we just got to get back to work (Friday).
“Bottom line, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. It’s a tight league, and we’ve got to go on a run sooner than later. We’ve got to be patient. We can’t force anything. We’ve got to be able to refocus and focus on our own game and don’t focus on what’s going on around us. What we can control is here in this room, so it’s best remain focused going into this weekend.”

Postgame notes: LW Alex Killorn appeared in his 300th career game. … D Jason Garrison returned after missing two games with a lower body injury. …. Tampa Bay fell to 0-6 this season against Western Conference opponents. … G Ben Bishop appeared in his 250th career NHL game. … The Lightning are scheduled to practice at noon at the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon on Friday. … D Braydon Coburn had gone 100 consecutive games without scoring a goal. … RW Nikita Kucherov finished with a career worst minus-4 rating. … Garrison, Killorn and Kucherov were all a minus-4. … Tampa Bay reached the 40-shot mark for the first time this season

{/mprestriction}