Lightning’s lack of commitment to winning shows in crippling loss

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
March 21, 2017

TAMPA, Fla. – Effort.

I’m sure, by the time you read this, the word “effort’’ and “lack of’’ will be used a bushel of times to describe the Lightning’s play Tuesday in an inexplicable 5-3 loss to the Arizona Coyotes. If I had a nickel for every time that phrase will be uttered between now and Thursday, it would be enough to host that subscriber watch party I’ve mentioned for reaching a threshold of subscriptions.

But Tuesday was not about effort. It was all about commitment, and the lack thereof for a team that should have been all about being committed to win.

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The Lightning knew the stakes. Get two points. Win the game, no matter how.

With 11 games left, including the game against the Coyotes, a win meant getting within two points of Toronto for the second wild card spot and, as result of Boston’s loss at home to Ottawa on Tuesday, within three points of the Bruins.

Lose and see the foundation of what was built up during a 12-2-3 stretch start to crumble and erode around them.

Teams driving for the playoffs don’t get swept on a three-game homestand and they don’t lose two games in the season to the bottom-feeding Coyotes.

Add in the fact that Arizona was playing its third game in four nights in three time zones and lost the previous two, including Monday in Nashville, and all of the elements were ripe for the Lightning to step in to a convincing, final-stretch defining victory.

But there just wasn’t enough . . . commitment.

The effort was there. Tampa Bay had 28 shot attempts in the first period. The Lightning had 39 shots on goal for the game. They directed 80 shots toward the Arizona net.

So the try was there, but where was the care? Where was the give-a-crap level?

That is the alarming aspect of Tuesday’s result because the game was there for the taking. The Coyotes even tried to give it to Tampa Bay on more than one occasion. But without the proper commitment level, the Lightning never put themselves in position to take the game.

Tampa Bay was gift-wrapped a lead heading in to the third period. Vladislav Namestnikov, back in the lineup and centering the second line, took a pass from Jonathan Drouin and slipped in alone down the slot. Namestnikov’s shot caromed off the post but as the puck came back, it struck the shoulder of Arizona’s Anthony Duclair and bounced in to the net with 1:52 left to go in the second to give the Lightning a 3-2 lead.

It was the break the Lightning needed. Hold the lead. Defend their end. Win the game. A simple plan for a team that was 23-2-1 this season when entering the third with a lead.

But Tampa Bay just wasn’t committed in enough areas to close out a game it needed to win.

Arizona scored twice in the span of 1:45 early in the third. The go-ahead goal came during 4-on-4 as Radim Vrbata let loose an unscreened wrist shot from the left circle, a goal that Andrei Vasilevskiy appeared to be too far out in his crease and reacted slow to before the puck zipped by his right shoulder.

Two critical mistakes on the play – no defender was close enough to Vrbata to disrupt the shot attempt and Vasilevskiy lost track of the play and then was out of position by the time the play in front of him.

Late in the game, the Coyotes again tried to hand the game over to Tampa Bay when Luke Schenn was called for tripping Nikita Kucherov, who slipped out wide and appeared to have an open lane to the net before getting taken down with 5:53 left in the game.

So a power play that has 31 goals on home ice this season, the fifth overall ranked power play in the league went to work against the 28th ranked road penalty kill with a chance to rescue the Lightning from the situation. Tampa Bay went out and failed to register a shot on goal during the man advantage. Zero shots on goal.

And if that wasn’t enough, the Coyotes took another tripping call with 2:41 left giving Tampa Bay another power play chance and the opportunity to pull a point out of a game. But once again, the Lightning were too passive, spending too much time passing the puck around the perimeter and standing on the outside.

Not the actions of a team desperate to win the game, in desperate need of pulling at least a point out of the game at that junction. Instead it was the empty-net goal scored by Connor Murphy that summed it all up perfectly as Victor Hedman tried to glove the puck out of midair, only to mishandle it and see it land behind him in to the empty net.

”I just don’t know what happened in the third,’’ Hedman said. “Going down 4-3 and getting two power plays in the end, we’ve got to do better. We’ve got to make sure we bear down and get opportunities..’’

And then there was this – the Lightning, the desperate team in need of the victory, finished the game with six blocked shots. Arizona blocked 25 shots.

”Blocking shots, you’ve got to be fearless to do that,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s getting in lanes and it’s doing those type of things that help you win games. Six blocked shots, that’s an extremely low number.

“That just shows you the mentality of what went on tonight.’’

It’s about being committed, not just to blocking shots, but to defending and protecting. A team that climbed back in to the playoff race with a 12-2-3 stretch in large part of a commitment to defense has not given up 15 goals during what is now set up to be a season-killing three-game losing streak.

”You have to keep the puck out of the net if you want to win,’’ Cooper said. “That’s it. In our last two games, we’ve scored three. In the past, when we’ve made a commitment to play D, we’ve won those games. Regardless, we’ve gotten points out of those games, but to give up five, five, and five, all of a sudden defending hasn’t become important. If you’re not going to defend, you’re not going to win.’’

The commitment to win is an attitude and on a night the Lightning needed the victory, the attitude was not that of a team committed to doing whatever it took to win the game.

”It seems now it’s got to be 6-5 or it’s not fun,’’ Cooper said. “That’s how it used to be here for a long time. We’re going nowhere if that’s the attitude we’re going to have.’’

Postgame notes: Earlier on Tuesday, the Lightning announced that defenseman Libor Hajek signed an entry-level contract and would join Syracuse on a PTO for the remainder of the the year. Hajek was the 37th overall pick in the 2016 draft, chose with the pick acquired from Arizona in exchange for former first-roun dpick Anthony DeAngelo, the 19th overall pick in 2014. … DeAngelo played his first game against Tampa Bay since being traded. He said he “had no hard feelings’’ against Tampa Bay for being dealt and said he was given a fair opportunity with the Lightning. DeAngelo played 13:35 against Tampa Bay on Tuesday. … C Greg McKegg was a healthy scratch. … G Andrei Vasilevskiy has lost three consecutive games.

My three stars:
1.Coyotes D Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Goal, assist, plus-1, 26:15 of ice time

2.Coyotes RW Radim Vrbata – Winning goal, five shots

3.Lightning RW Nikita Kucherov – Goal, assist, 11 shot attempts

Jon Cooper postgame reaction

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