The Tampa Bay Lightning like the way they have played lately but not the results, something they aim to change Monday night when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Lightning dropped their third in a row with a 2-0 home loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday. The other two defeats were by one goal.
The Saturday game was decided by third-period goals, one on a power play and the other into an empty net.
“These ones sting because you’re playing pretty sound hockey and you’re not getting rewarded for it,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “And so our job is to make sure that we don’t change the way we play, that we just keep plugging along and keep doing the right things. And eventually you’ll get rewarded, just as we’ve been rewarded for 15 games before it.”
Before their current losing streak, the Lightning won seven straight and 15 of 18.
The Lightning open a four-game road trip against the Maple Leafs, who want to rebound from a 2-1 home shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens Saturday that snapped their three-game winning streak.
The Maple Leafs showed improvement on a 4-2-0 road trip and hoped to build on that when they started a five-game homestand.
“Missed the net like 15 times at least, I think that’s a number,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “Good opportunities too. We have to hit the net on those opportunities. The power play needed to come through and it didn’t, but I thought our goaltending was good and we got a point out of it.”
Goaltender Joseph Woll was put on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, so Dennis Hildeby started and made 33 saves.
“Dennis kept us in that game,” Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. “He’s been really good. Last year, he was really good when he got the chance to come in and play, and this year, he seems like he took that to the next level with confidence and poise.”
Toronto’s power play continued to struggle, however, going 0-for-3.
“Right now, what I see when I watch it, they’re unsure of themselves a little bit,” Berube said. “In particular, a power play in the second period. We moved it well and we didn’t take a shot. The shots are there and we’re not taking them.”
Toronto had 23 shots on goal, only three in the second period.
“We were trying to make too many plays, not go north,” said Scott Laughton, who scored a short-handed goal in the third period. “It put a lot of pressure on our ‘D’ to go back for pucks. We need to clean that up. We found a way to get a point and keep moving forward, but definitely we didn’t have our best stuff.”
The Lightning were without two important players against the Islanders — goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and forward Nikita Kucherov — because of undisclosed injuries.
Also, forwards Curtis Douglas and Dominic James left in the third period and did not return. Defenseman Victor Hedman played 16:43 after missing 12 games with an injury.
“We didn’t play him as often as he usually does,” Cooper said, “but I don’t think Vic wanted to play that much anyway. It’s hard to go from practice right into a game, especially 30 games in, when the (pace) is picked up, but he did a great job.”
–Field Level Media
