BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Lightning arrived in Buffalo looking to snap out of their recent funk with 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, and going back farther 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 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, and in a second period that determined 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 in 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. He has to figure out how to inject two new players into the lineup in trade acquisitions. 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.
Alex Killorn did his own trying to bring the Lightning back in the game with two third-period goals, including one short-handed.
Jeannot will bring the Lightning into the fight
This might have been the most physical game the Lightning have played all season, and new acquisition Tanner Jeannot was brought in to add to the team’s toughness. He certainly did that in his third game in a Tampa Bay uniform.
Jeannot set the tone putting Dylan Cozens into the Buffalo bench skates up and unloaded a hard check on Ilya Lyubushkin against the end boards. When the game started getting chippy in the second period, Jeannot didn’t hesitate to drop his gloves with Riley Stillman, who had been a nuisance all game.
Jeannot flung his gloves off and wailed on Stillman, sending him to the ice with a right hook that sent Stillman down the tunnel. That seemed to energize the Lightning, as did Anthony Cirelli standing up for himself after Rasmus Dahlin took out his knees, prompting a big scrum and a lot of yelling from Cirelli. But the Lightning seem to struggle harnessing that emotion, and they were unable to cut into a two-goal Buffalo lead, instead allowing a goal with 14 seconds left in the period by Jack Quinn.
