Tampa Bay Lightning again show little passion in loss to Flyers

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
January 7, 2017

The Lightning hit the halfway point of the season Saturday.

The only thing it really symbolized, however, is the team is halfway to a disastrous season the wind up costing some members of the organization losing their jobs. That’s the only result that will come if Tampa Bay keeps putting up results like happened on Saturday.

Coming off consecutive blowout losses, allowing 12 goals, Tampa Bay’s defense once again looked like a shell of itself in dropping a 4-2 game to the Philadephia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.

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The Lightning have lost three consecutive games since picking up points in six of seven games from Dec. 20-31, when it appeared the team was starting to put together the type of run needed to start vaulting up the standings, similar to last season.

Instead, it looks like the bottom has fallen out and the season is on the verge of plummeting to depths nobody imagined would be possible. Heading in to Sunday’s late afternoon game in Pittsburgh, the Lightning are almost as close to the bottom spot in the Atlantic Division (three points) as they are to the third spot (two points behind).

But this feels like a sinking ship, not one that is ready to turn the motors to full throttle and get back in the race.

“Everybody’s losing all around us. That’s not going to happen forever,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said in his brief comments after the game to reporters. “We’re scrambling to find our way back into the mix, which we did over the break. And now in one short week, we’re right back where we started with a back-to-back coming tomorrow (two home games) and then a six-gamer on the road. The time is now, that’s it.”

But the time for what is the real question.

Obviously Cooper is referencing the fact that the time is now for Tampa Bay to get its act together and start to win some games.

It’s probably time for something else to happen, however, in order for the winning to start. Because the status quo is not working.

After the game against Nashville, the need for change seemed apparent. The lack of response has become alarming.

“It was turnovers and lost battles pretty much all night. When you’re going to do that, you don’t really have much of a chance of winning,” Cooper said. “When you just don’t have that passion to go to the net and shoot the puck to score, it’s tough to win games. We just lost too many battles and turned too many pucks over. That was it.”

It’s the choice of the word passion that Cooper brought up in his postgame comments I found interesting, because I think you do have to start questioning the passion this team is showing overall, not just in Saturday’s loss to Philadelphia.

In the game against Nashville, after Tyler Johnson scored a power play goal to cut a two-goal deficit in half, the push for the tying goal wasn’t very strong. Against Winnipeg, when Matthew Peca scored his first career goal to tie the game, the response on the next shift was atrocious. The Jets pressed right back, created a breakaway and retook the lead on Nikolaj Ehlers’ penalty shot goal.

There was no life, not enough fight in the team, almost like they are asking – almost begging – for some sort of change to take place.

That same sort of effort was on display against the Flyers. Even after scoring the opening goal of the game and carrying a lead in to the second period, Tampa Bay didn’t seem to have enough of a push and the Flyers scored three goals in the opening 10 minutes of the second period including two goals 69 seconds apart.

Alex Killorn would score his 13th goal of the season two seconds after a power play expired to but the deficit to 3-2, but again, where was the will to answer with a push when Radko Gudas was allowed to get in deep, circle the net and get a wraparound in 57 seconds after Killorn’s goal.

Then at the end of the game, with the net empty, Tampa Bay held the puck in the Flyers’ zone for almost two minutes straight, but hardly created any dangerous looking chances, effectively killing the final two minutes of the game to secure the victory for Philadelphia.

In a way, it might also have killed this team as we’ve come to know it. Because something has to give. With another half of the season to go, the Lightning are in dire need of a jolt.

Postgame notes: RW J.T. Brown left the game late in the third after being hit in the head by Wayne Simmonds and did not return. Cooper did not provide an update on his condition after the game. … D Braydon Coburn was scratched with an upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day. … Tampa Bay allowed a season-high 44 shots on goal. … D Nikita Nesterov recorded his first career multi-point game in the regular season. … G Andrei Vasilevskiy set a season high with 40 saves. … Tampa Bay opened the scoring for just the 15th time in 41 games this season, falling to 12-3 when doing so. … .

My three stars:
1.Flyers D Radko Gudas – Goal, five shots, three hits, two takeaways, 24:35 of ice time.

2.Flyers C Sean Couturier – Goal, four shots, 12-of-18 in faceoffs, key penalty killer

3.Flyers RW Jakub Voracek – Two assists, plus-2, three shots, two takeaways

Full game highlights from NHL.com

Jon Cooper’s postgame comments via TBL.com

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