Lightning look to regroup on challenging five-game West Coast swing
TAMPA, Fla. -- These blues, two hiccups in the past three games at Amalie Arena, must be left on the runway.
These bad memories, with the Tampa Bay Lightning outscored a combined 10-5 in losses since Saturday against two examples of Western Conference muscle, must be left behind before they jet from the Gulf Coast to the land of Pacific surf, desert mountains and Mile High chill.
What will the coming five-game Western trip reveal?
The Lightning better hope Thursday was no sneak peek of discoveries to come.
"We have to respond," said Lightning winger Ryan Callahan, after his team's 6-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues. "We have character in this room. Like I've said, we've done it before. Efforts or games we weren't happy with, we've always seemed to respond. I expect the same out of this group."
That's big-time trust to place in one team, especially after the Blues turned the Lightning's confidence to mush with a 2-0 lead and a 17-6 shot advantage following the first period. But for Tampa Bay, this is a good news, bad news situation.
The good: The Lightning have given Callahan and others little reason to consider that immediate recovery isn't possible. They have lost two consecutive games seven times this season, the most recent occasion happening Thursday, which came after an overtime defeat at the Nashville Predators on Tuesday. But two straight losses have never become three.
The bad: Of those seven two-game skids, five were stopped with wins at home. Starting this weekend, the Lightning will be gone from Amalie Arena for so long -- with stops in San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Arizona and Colorado -- that they may forget the sound of their own goal horn. They begin this trek 12-11-5 on the road, and only the Arizona Coyotes have a losing record at home (9-13-4) of the Western opponents to come.
"This has happened to us a couple times this year," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We've been pretty good at responding after something like this has happened. Now, this will be another test for us, because we've been able to come home after times like this. ... I've been with this group for almost two years. They never let us down. This was a strong team. We weren't ready from the start."
Of course, the start Thursday was concerning. The Lightning followed a letdown against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday by pile driving the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday and then stealing a point on the road against the Predators, the NHL's best home team.
But instead of showing will against the Blues, a group the Lightning outplayed in an overtime loss on Feb. 3 in St. Louis, Tampa Bay withered before packing their bags for journeys West. T.J. Oshie, Dmitrij Jaskin, Alexander Steen, David Backes, Paul Stastny and Vladimir Tarasenko all scored, plus Steen added two assists. Overall, the Blues outshot the Lightning 44-29.
Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop allowed five goals before being pulled prior to the start of the third period, but Cooper placed little blame on the Tall One in net. The coach called his team's start "horrific," and he used words such as "ticked off," "a little embarrassed," and "frustrating" to round out the description of this uncommon horror show at home.
"Throughout the whole season, we've responded well," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. "We've got to go out there and play with urgency, play with passion. And if we play like we normally do, we're going to have a good chance to win. We might not win that game, but if we go out and play with that urgency and effort level that we have, we're going to give ourselves a good chance to win that game."
Wanted: Urgency and high effort level. Now.
Now, the Lightning must turn recent frights on familiar ice into recovery away from Amalie Arena, which would be a flipped script of sorts for them. Now, they must show that they are able to conjure up another recovery job, this time far from the comforts of home, where they own a 22-6-1 record.
"There's always urgency when you lose," Lightning center Steven Stamkos said. "You never want to lose back-to-back (games). We know the situation we're in with the teams we're going to be playing on this trip. We know. Hopefully, we can regroup and start the game on time, because these buildings we're going into on this trip are exceptionally hard."
No doubt.
To succeed, they must leave some baggage behind.
You can follow Andrew Astleford on Twitter @aastleford or email him at aastleford@gmail.com.
