Wednesday, 4 a.m.
When things are going bad for a team, there are leaks all over the place.
And so it is with the Tampa Bay Lightning, struggling along in a 3-4 start to their season.
There was the goal that was taken away for being offsides. There was the five-on-three the team didn't take advantage of. There was another night when the offense didn't dazzle in a 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
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"I think it was an even game halfway through," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We probably carried the play. Unfortunately, we got behind and we didn’t push. The disappointing part is once they got the lead, they structured down. We were chasing the game, going completely away from what we did in the first half of the game."
It was the first loss for the Bolts against L.A. in six seasons (after 10 straight wins).
The Bolts have only seven goals in their four losses this year (13 in their twins). The Lightning was 0-4 on the power play, including 40 seconds of five-on-three.
"You’re going to grade things on whether you score or not," Cooper said. "You get a five-on-three for an extended amount of time and do nothing with it, it doesn’t help your chance of winning."
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy fell to 2-3 on the season. He's given up 14 goals in his losses. The Bolts were outshot 33-24.
For the Bolts, goals came from Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov's goal was his first of the season.
The Bolts play against Anaheim tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern.