Tampa Bay Lightning head west in the hopes of mining wins

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
January 15, 2017

For years, fortune chasers from the east were told to go west in the search for success.

“Go West, young man” was the rallying cry heard across North America, creating a rush to the left coast.

While gold was the target back in those days, the Lightning now head out west seeking to turn their fortunes around, with the chase for silver on their mind in the form of an over-sized Cup the prize at the end of the chase.

For the chase to feel real, Tampa Bay’s current fortunes need to be turned starting with the first of a six-game road trip that starts out west with Monday’s game at Los Angeles (Fox Sports Sun, 970-AM, 4 p.m.)

It has the feel of a trip that will make-or-break Tampa Bay’s season.

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“For us, we need to have urgency just because of our standing right now and we have to make up ground,” left wing Alex Killorn said after practice in Los Angeles on Sunday. “This is a big road trip for the outset of the season and we have to start (Monday) with a big game.”

The Lightning start the trip sitting just as close to the Eastern Conference cellar as they do to a playoff spot. But a trip that ends with fewer than eight out of a possible 12 points puts Tampa Bay in the precarious position of not just chasing the No. 3 spot in the Atlantic Division, but having to leap frog other teams to reach that spot. And every team they are battling with in the division, with the exception of Florida, has games in hand on Tampa Bay – with Toronto and Ottawa holding three games in hand as of Sunday.

It’s not painting a rosy picture for the Lightning’s fortunes for the final three month trek, making this a season-defining trip.

”Where we are in the standings, this is a big road trip for us,’’ left wing Jonathan Drouin said. “We need points.’’

Historically, the Lightning appear to be in trouble.

Tampa Bay has lost five consecutive games at Los Angeles, the last win coming in Steven Stamkos’ rookie year. The fortunes have been a bit better in Anaheim, where the Lightning have won the last two trips to the Pond and have points in the past six games, but the Ducks entered Sunday’s game against St. Louis having won three consecutive and six of the past seven while allowing two or fewer goals in the six games with three shutouts in that span.

San Jose has not been kind to the Lightning through the years, though Tampa Bay has won the past two games at the Shark Tank. But the defending Western Conference champions have proven a tough team to beat at home this season with six losses at SAP Center this season.

“This is the one road trip that everybody in the league knows when you come on this Western swing it’s going to be a tough road trip,” Killorn said.

Arizona sets up as a must-win game against the 29th ranked team in the league that has two wins in the past 10 games as of Sunday.

The Lightning will finally leave the Pacific Division and head to Chicago, where the Blackhawks have a 17-4-4 home record, before flying to Sunrise to conclude the trip against the Panthers on Jan. 26th in the final game before the All-Star break.

Should Tampa Bay stumble on this trip, it could easily lead to their downfall.

”We need to change our attitude a little bit and find our mojo,’’ Brian Boyle said. “We need to carry ourselves with a little bit more confidence and know that we can score quick goals, we can come from behind, we can jump out to leads and bury teams, we’ve done that in the past with this group.

“Now we have a really hard, long road trip coming up and we should be greedy and try to win every single game, expect to win every single game. Then we can come back here with a little bit of a tone and a little bit of a strut in our step.’’

If there is something to point to that shows things might be heading in a positive direction despite five losses in the past six games, it might be the most recent pair Tampa Bay has played.

Ben Bishop returned and played well in a victory against Buffalo on Thursday, which might have also been Tampa Bay’s best defensive effort in the past few weeks. Then on Friday, the Lightning showed the same sort of defensive mindset against Columbus despite falling 3-1 to the top team in the league at the time.

That’s four goals allowed – not counting empty net goals – in two games after allowing 22 in the previous four. Of course, it’s all about doing it consistently to give Tampa Bay a better chance at victory as the Lightning are 19-4-1 this season when scoring three or more goals; they are 1-16-3 when scoring two or less.

It’s an area the coaching staff emphasized during two days of practice earlier in the week as they try to work through the “process’’.

”Ready for the cliché of the night? It’s a process,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “We are in the business of winning, but we have to get back to a lot of the things that in the past have helped us win. For us, sometimes you can’t just look at the end result at the time. If we play extremely well and lost, would that be a complete failure? But nights when we play well and win and that’s what is going to happen more often than not when you play well. There are a lot of things that need to be in place before the wins start coming regularly.’’

Winning regularly is something that has to happen, and soon.

Last year Tampa Bay was in somewhat of a similar situation before putting forth a seven-game winning streak followed by a franchise record winning streak. But of those 16 victories that wound up defining the regular season for the Lightning, only three came against teams that made the playoffs last season (two against Pittsburgh and one against Chicago). Just on this road trip alone, Tampa Bay will face four teams currently in a playoff position. Then coming out of the All-Star break, the Lightning open with games against Boston, Ottawa, Los Angeles, Anaheim and at Minnesota.

The road to the playoffs this season will not be an easy path. Tampa Bay can clear things up if they mine some wins out west.

Ryan Callahan, who has missed the past three games after dealing with another flare up from off-season hip surgery, will miss another four weeks, the team announced on Sunday. … RW J.T. Brown who has missed the past three games with an upper body injury, traveled with the team and practiced on Sunday but his status remains day-to-day. … The Lightning made some roster moves over the weekend. On Sunday Tampa Bay called up LW Joel Vermin from Syracuse of the American Hockey League, which was preceded the day before on the reassignment of C Matthew Peca to the Crunch. Peca appeared in nine games, picking up his first career goal and assist along the way but played a team-low 7:46 of ice time on Friday against Columbus. Vermin, who appeared in eight games with Tampa Bay earlier this season, is just coming back from injury with Syracuse.

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