Second consecutive loss leaves Lightning with little wiggle room down stretch

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
March 18, 2017

TAMPA, Fla. – The margin for error is pretty much down to slim and none. And none has one foot out the door.

After climbing up the standings steadily since the All-Star break, the Lightning have slipped back in to 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings after a 5-3 loss to the Washington Capitals at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

T.J. Oshie registered his third career hat trick and added an assist while Nicklas Backstrom had four assists as the Capitals broke open a tight game with a pair of goals in the opening six minutes of the third period.

Tampa Bay suffered its first back-to-back regulation losses since Jan. 31-Feb. 2, the two games coming out of the All-Star break. The Lightning are now two points behind Toronto for the second wild card spot with 11 games to play. The Maple Leafs have a game in hand.

There is no room left on the schedule for games like Saturday.

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”Now our backs are against the wall,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said.

Realistically, a game against the Capitals – even as they entered the game on a 1-4-1 stretch – always felt like a loss. Tampa Bay typically struggles against Washington when the lineup is healthy. But on Saturday, the Lightning were playing their fifth game in eight nights with a lineup depleted due to injuries and trades.

That has left Tampa Bay with, essentially, two NHL-caliber lines and lineup that looks nothing like anyone could have envisioned and a shell of the team that was on the ice for opening night back in October.

The Lightning needed to find a desperation level against one of the top teams in the league that just wasn’t there.

tampa Bay showed plenty of fight early on, falling in to a two-goal hole in the first period only to dig out of it with goals 16 seconds apart by Nikita Kucherov – who notched his 100th career goal – and Alex Killorn, who scored his first goal since Feb. 4.

But slowly, the Capitals started to exert their will on the ice. Though the game remained tied through two periods, mainly due to Andrei Vasilevskiy standing tall, the sense of foreboding started to build.

Tampa Bay started to have that feel of hanging on, particularly when Jonathan Drouin took an interference 61 seconds in to the third period. The Lightning were scrambling around for most of the penalty kill, but had issues at times getting the puck out of the zone.

It was still a bit of a scramble when Drouin exited the box as Tampa Bay killed off the penalty, but as the puck stayed in the zone, the Capitals were able to get a line change and the Lightning lost their coverage. With nobody up covering the point positions, Matt Niskanen was able to step off the bench, come in to the zone and step in to a shot and Justin Williams tipped down past Vasilevskiy 13 seconds after the power play expired.

”You would sit here and say tie game going in to the third, we’ll take our chances,’’ Cooper said. “It’s just tough, we take a penalty, get through it and then we just stopped playing on our defensive awareness as they were changing, coming off the bench, to give that one up, that’s a tough one. Then it’s a one-goal game, but you can’t give up the fourth, that’s a killer.’’

That killer goal came Just over two minutes later, during a delayed penalty call, John Carlson came down the from the right point unchecked and batted a puck out of the air to give Washington a 4-2 lead.

”We started turning pucks over. We were a little bit on our heels,’’ defenseman Victor Hedman said. “Obviously not the way we wanted to finish the game. We’ve got to learn from that.’’

Kucherov scored his second of the game with 90 seconds left in the game to give Tampa Bay some life, but Oshie finished off his third career hat trick with 44 seconds left in to seal the victory and hand the Lightning a second consecutive loss.

”They played well give them credit, but we have to be better, a lot better, in those situations, more desperation in the game,’’ Killorn said. “When we have an opportunity being 2-2 going in to the third period, we’ll take that all day against a team like this so we just have to be better in the third.

“We have to compete for the entire game and it wasn’t there tonight.’’

With 11 games left, Tampa Bay is going to have to bring that type of compete level to the ice every single game.

There is no more margin for these type of games.

Postgame notes: RW Joel Vermin was called up from Syracuse of the American Hockey League on Saturday on an emergency basis but was scratched when LW Ondrej Palat was available to play. … Palat played 26 minutes, 16 seconds of ice time. …. RW T.J. Oshie has 10 goals and 19 points in 14 career games against Tampa Bay. … .

My three stars:
1.Capitals RW T.J. Oshie – Third career hat trick, four points

2.Capitals C Nicklas Backstrom – Four assists, 60 percent on faceoffs

3.Lightning RW Nikita Kucherov – Two goals, four shots