Second period again sinks Lightning
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Lightning arrived in Buffalo looking to snapoutoftheirrecentfunkwith a rescheduled Saturday afternoon game against the Sabres.
They definitely looked like a different team, but the second period again was their bugaboo as a tied game turned into a three-goal deficit following three Buffalo goals in the middle period.
With their 5-3 loss at KeyBank Center, the Lightning have won just two of their last nine games. Looking back further, they’ve been a rather ordinary team since the beginning of last month, going 5-5-4 since Feb. 1.
They’ve also allowed four or more goals in five of their last six games. All five of those games were Tampa Bay losses.
Here are three things we learned from Saturday’s game in Buffalo.
Sabres were better at their own game:
Given the fact that they really need to refine their game defensively, it would have been better to see the Lightning lock down against one of the league’s top scoring teams. History would tell us it’s tough when you play the Sabres because they score a lot and also allow a lot of opportunities. The Lightning and the Sabres combined for an average of 10 goals in their three previous meetings.
But if you’re going to get locked into a high-scoring up-and-down track meet, you’ve got to make sure you get your shot attempts, andinasecondperiodthatdetermined the outcome the Lightning just didn’t manufacture enough offense.
They were outshot 17-8 in the second period and had just four shots on goal at even strength.
That left the Lightning with a small margin for error, and the Sabres made them pay when they made a mistake.
Cooper sent a message: Lightning coach Jon Cooper has a lot to figure out in terms of his roster, including how to inject two new players into the lineup. He’s tweaking the penalty-kill unit.
And then he made a shocking move by sitting Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov for the entire third period, seemingly sending a message to the team’s top players.
The game became extremely physical at that point, and part of it might have been to protect the team’s stars from injury, but Cooper is not one to do that.