Sunday, 4 a.m

For two days, they were awful.

For two days, the defensemen of the Tampa Bay Lightning would look at each other and lower their eyes. They were not good enough. They were not sturdy enough. They were not dependable enough. They had the best goaltender in the league last season. They had the best defender. And still, they were surrendering goals at an alarming rate.

It had to stop.

And, for a night, it did.

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The Lightning came out strong Saturday night, stopping a dangerous San Jose team in a 7-1 win. They were called for three penalties in the first eight minutes of the game and killed off them all and coasted to one of their easiest wins of the year.

Steven Stamkos and Tyler Johnson each scored two goals for the Lightning, and Andrei Vasilevski stopped 37 of 38 goals. Also scoring for the Bolts were Victor Hedman, Alex Killorn and rookie Carter Verhaegen.

"Wwe talked a lot about what matters to us," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We saw the scores: 2-1, 21 2-1, 2-0. We can’t be giving up those goals. It’s going to read that we gave up 38 shotss. Btt we saw them all. They weren’t heart-stopping shots. They wren’t huge danger-zone chances. It was our attention to detail in our end that led to our win today."

Cooper was pleased to see Verhaegen's first goal.

"The a kid gets his first," Cooper said. "He deserved it. He was really good tonight. That line was outstanding. It’s my seventh seven. iIve seen a  lot of guys score their first . The feeling never changes. He’s got something to built on now. "

Stamkos said the game was a huge one for the players.

"It  started with those penalty kills at the beginning of the game," Stamkos said. "You never want to put  yourself in those positions. It starts with Vasiy making some big saves. You could see that the crowd appreciated the  sacrifice the guys had. We could tell we were going to have a good effort. It’s been a tough couple of days reflecting on that performance (against Minnesota). We rebounded well."

The Lightning is home Monday night against the New York Islanders. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7 p.m.

Saturday, 4 a.m.

If there really is a difference to the Tampa Bay Bucs, they win win this game.

They are playing well. They are at home. The Colts are on a losing streak. The secondary is growing up. The defensive line is strong. The quarterback is making (slightly) more good plays than bad ones. The wide receivers are game-breakers. The kicking game is solid.

So, yeah, if the Bucs are at least an average team, they win this game.

Period.

Do you trust team yet? Has three wins in their last four games convinced you that there is a difference to these Bucs? Have they convinced you that you can trust them to take it to the field?

The Colts, who won five of six earlier in the year, have lost four of their last five games (and scored less than 20 points in three of their last four). They threw for 309 yards last week, but before that, they had five straight games with less than 200 yards throwing.

If the Bucs can control the passing game, as they have the last two weeks in wins over the Falcons and Jaguars, they should be able to score enough to get within one game of .500.

When they were 3-7, would you have thought that was possible?

Predictio: Tampa Bay 27. Indianapolis 20.

Friday, 4 a.m

Defense? What defense?

The Tampa Bay Lightning offered barely any resistance to the Minnesota Wild Thursday night, losing an embarrassing 5-4 defeat at Amalie Arena that left their head coach fuming and their players red-faced.

The Lightning fell to 13-10-3 with the loss. Goaltender Andrei Vaselivskiy stopped only 16 of 21 shots on the night.

The Lightning suffered two quick go-ahead goals. After tying the game at 3-3 on a goal by Victor Hedman, the Wild scored the tie-breaker in only 36 seconds. Later, when the Lightning tied the game at 4-4 on a goal by Alex Killorn, the Wild took just eight second to break the tie.

"One too many?" said coach Jon Cooper/. "We’re giving up three too many. The pride we're taking in our d-zone is unacceptable right now. Here we've thrown some good games together lately where we've played pretty well. But you're giving up goals like that. In this league, you’ve got no chance. No chance.

"You’re going to come and say ‘hey, you’re going to score four goals tonight.” You're thinking you’re going to win the game, not play a game where you’re going to get no point. there’s going to have to be a little urgency and not score your way to wins."

For the second straight game, the Lightning gave up three goals in the first period. But the inability to protect its net after scoring was the crusher.

“We talk it eye to eye," Cooper said. "It’s the biggest shift of the game. One's within (36) seconds and a blown zone coverage. The other one should never happen  It’s unacceptable after you’ve worked so hard to get the tying goal. You can’t give those up."

ampa Bay, which is 1-3-1 over its last five games, got goals from Erik Cernak, Mikhail Sergachev, Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn. 

The Lightning is home against the San Jose Sharks Saturday night at Amalie Arena. The puck is schedule to drop at 7 p.m.

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