The Tampa Bay Lightning thought they had snapped out of their slump when they won four straight a week ago to end a three-game losing streak.
“I thought we turned a corner a little bit,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “Clearly, we haven’t.”
The Lightning were left with more questions than answers after a 2-2 draw against the Toronto Maple Leafs slipped away Monday night at AMALIE Arena, the Leafs scoring four unanswered goals, caused by Auston Matthews’ hat-trick , to win and leave. 6-2.
In the process, Toronto moved up against the Lightning in the Atlantic Division standings. The Bolts are now fourth in the Atlantic, tied with Boston on points but behind the Bruins due to the regulation wins tiebreaker.
The Lightning fell into a wild card position and are in danger of playing one of the division winners in the first round of the playoffs.
“We have to get to the playoffs first,” Cooper said.
This is where things went wrong in Monday’s loss to the Leafs.
Video: TBL Recap: Kucherov, Rutta score in 6-2 loss
1. SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS
The most frustrating aspect of the Lightning’s struggles lately is that most of what is happening to them is being done to themselves.
Sure, other teams are playing well against them. But mostly, it’s the Lightnings that make avoidable mistakes and opponents seize those opportunities when they present themselves.
The winning goal is a perfect example.
In a 2-2 game for nearly 30 minutes, the Lightning were in a good position. Twice they had responded to a Toronto goal with one of their own. Jan Rutta he leveled the score for what would turn out to be the last time when he skated into the slot and hit a backhand shot past Leafs goalie Jack Campbell at 5:46 of the second.
The Bolts had a bit of a boost, but it all fizzled out in an instant.
As the teams approached the midpoint of the period, the Lightning flipped the puck into the neutral zone and quickly returned the other side to their own end. In the ensuing fight, Lightning lost sight of Auston Matthews, who went straight to the net and presented himself as an option for Mitch Marner.
Matthews put his stick on the ice, Marner threw a pass to the front of the net and Matthews finished it over Vasilevskiy to put Toronto back up 3-2.
This time it would be forever.
“I think we’re doing it to ourselves right now.” garnet pat he guessed “Self-inflicted. Turnovers shot us in the foot again tonight. It just has to be better here.”
Toronto’s second goal was another case of the Lightning trying to do too much when there wasn’t a play to be made and the Maple Leafs took advantage of the Bolts’ mistake.
The Lightning got the puck off their own end and were skidding through the neutral zone, but tried to pass a pass from the left wall through the center facing circle to the opposite side with a lot of bodies in the middle.
Toronto intercepted the ill-advised pass. The Leafs moved up the offensive end and found Matthews, who skated into the left circle and hit a shot past Vasilevskiy for the first of his three goals.
Most of Toronto’s goals were scored that way: Lightning turnover, Toronto lunge, Bolts struggle and the puck in the back of the net.
“The competition is there,” Maroon said. “I just think we’re trying to make the extra play. We’re overthinking it. Maybe the guys that haven’t gotten a point or scored in a long time are just grabbing the stick and making the extra play. I said keep it simple.” at the moment. I know it’s boring hockey. I know some players don’t want to play like that, but at the end of the day you have to do it until you get out of this.”
Video: Jon Cooper | Postgame 4.4.22
2. AN OBJECTIVE TEAM
The Lightning were hoping to play this season with a goal on their backs after winning back-to-back Stanley Cup championships.
But perhaps they didn’t realize how difficult it would be to navigate a full 82-game schedule when every opponent wants to put together their best game against the champions.
There has been no break in the schedule, especially now that games are getting fast and furious, there is rarely more than a day between outings.
And now the Lightning, starting with the game against Toronto, are facing three straight playoff-bound teams this week who would like nothing more than to enter the postseason with confidence by taking out the two-time defending champions.
“There’s a lot of pressure on our team,” Maroon admitted. “Everyone watches us every time we play a game. Everybody wants to beat the best, right? To be the best, you have to beat the best. Fortunately, the last two years we’ve been that team. Isn’t that right? It doesn’t matter whether it’s the regular season or the playoffs, teams want to play us right now and they want to see where they’re at, especially this time of year in April, April hockey people want to prepare and see where they’re at and look at what they’ve got “.
The Lightnings know what they’ve got. They have shown it in the last two postseasons. Sure, they’ve got a few new pieces added to the pool this season and a couple more brought in at the trade deadline, but most of the team that won back-to-back championships is still around. For the Bolts, it’s about securing a postseason berth and then reclaiming that defense-first philosophy that got them over the hump and saw them lift the Cup to close out the 2020 and 2021 playoffs.
The Lightning have known they are likely to qualify for the playoffs again for a while now. The top eight teams in the Eastern Conference have separated themselves from the rest of the pack to the point that it would take a minor miracle for one of those teams outside the top eight to make it.
This part of the season seems to be a routine for Lightning. They have played many games in the last two seasons. Wear and tear, as well as mental fatigue, could be catching up with them. There’s a feeling the team might want to move quickly through this final month of the season and get back to the postseason where they’ve been so successful.
But they can’t just flip a switch once the playoffs begin.
They need to get their game in order before then so they can play with confidence once the puck drops in the postseason.
“I have to work here and take it away and show them why the last two years we were successful,” Maroon said. “I’ve got to work with these new guys here and get them to sit down, get them to have a little bit of confidence here. I’ve got to shoot four lanes here, compete. Everybody’s got to get touches. Everybody’s going to get looks and we’ve got to help everybody here”.
Video: Pat Maroon | Postgame 4.4.22
3. HAVE FUN AGAIN
As one of the team leaders, Pat Maroon is often the voice of reason in these situations where the Lightning aren’t playing well.
His postgame comments were on point in the moments after the lopsided loss, but accurate.
However, one thing he did say was especially interesting.
He said the Lightnings haven’t had much fun in the last month and they need to make that up if they want to be successful in the future.
Even when the team seemed to right the ship last week by winning four in a row, Maroon said inside the locker room that it didn’t feel like they were winning.
“We had a winning streak there, but that winning streak didn’t feel like a winning streak,” he said. “It feels like it was a losing streak. It’s weird. It shouldn’t feel like that. It’s up to the players right now to control it. (Coaches) can give us all the systems they want. They can give us all the information we need. Everything it comes down to work ethic and going out there and competing hard and enjoying the game again. It’s been a long period. I’m not going to make excuses there. It’s been a long period. It’s been tough, but we’ve got to find a way out of this because this is the most fun time of the year right now, we’re down the stretch and getting ready for the playoffs.”
Maroon said the Lightning need to get back to winning games 2-1, getting back to the Tampa Bay Lightning way of playing that saw them lift the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons. The Lightning have given up 10 goals in the last two games. Once they fall behind in a game, they pop out of their structure in an effort to get back into the game and end up dealing more damage to each other in the process.
“It looks like we’re running and gunning,” Maroon said. “We’re trying to make the nice plays. We’re playing a little slower than we’d like. Sometimes some guys grab the stick. Some guys aren’t scoring or producing like they’d like. Confidence goes a long way in this league. It seems like we’re lacking right now. Obviously, there’s no excuses in that locker room. We’ve got to find a way to get out of this. It’s been two long years. This is down the stretch here where we’ve got to find a way to equip ourselves here and prepare for a long race here.
Jon Cooper echoed Maroon’s statement. The Lightning need to refocus on playing smart, simple, defensive hockey, the style that has given them so much success recently, the brand of hockey that has made playing so much fun for them in the past two postseasons.
“We probably have to stop worrying about what we’re doing on your side of the red line and start what we’re doing on our side of the red line,” Cooper said. “That’s where it all starts. And when you deal with your end, usually the other things take care of themselves. You’re going to give up six and four a night, your chances of winning are slim.”
Reference-www.nhl.com