/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-tbt.s3.amazonaws.com/public/N3RZ4WWEUUI6TKTRIBWI6S7HAY.jpg "Tampa Bay Lightning's Brayden Point, left, pokes the puck away from Minnesota Wild's Mikael Granlund (64), of Finland, while Lightning goal Andrei Vasilevskiy, of Russia, moves to make the stop during the third period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018, in St. Paul, Minn. Minnesota won 5-2. (AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid) MNTO111")
CHICAGO — It didn't take the sound of a door slamming in the visitor's dressing room Saturday night to sense this Lightning team is frustrated.
Tampa Bay believed it had worked hard against the Wild — at least, harder than it did in Thursday's lethargic loss to Vegas — yet it dropped another game. That makes five losses in the past seven. More telling, the team has lost its swagger.
"We're out of sync," coach Jon Cooper put it. "The guys didn't forget how to play hockey in the last week and a half."
But they forgot how to play it together.
Gone is that mojo Nikita Kucherov often talked about in the first half of the season, when the Lightning appeared to be running away with the Eastern Conference. Now its Atlantic Division lead has shrunk to three points thanks to a surging Boston team that just might be the class of the conference right now.
RELATED: Lightning falls to Wild, its fifth loss in seven games.
It's not time to hit the panic button, but it's getting closer.
"We didn't get where we are today by fluke," Cooper said. "But we've got better in us, we know that."
The Lightning (31-12-3) better show it quickly, with this telling eight-game trip continuing in tough buildings in Chicago on Monday, Nashville on Tuesday and Philadelphia against the red-hot Flyers on Thursday. And the Lightning will have to do it without wing Ondrej Palat, who is back in Tampa and out indefinitely with a lower-body injury.
"It's really going to test our will and commitment and compete to go into those buildings and have a good game and get wins," defenseman Dan Girardi said. "We've got to stop the bleeding."
Cooper is right. The Lightning didn't soar to the top of the standings by a fluke. This is a really talented team, boasting elite scorers in Kucherov and Steven Stamkos, and an All-Star goalie in Andrei Vasilevskiy. This group is experienced, with plenty of character and leadership in the room.
But Tampa Bay isn't without flaws. Vasilevskiy was able to mask a lot of them with his brilliant play in the first half of the season, but when he's mortal, those warts are revealed.
The Lightning has issues on the back end, and those are exacerbated with the injury absence of 2017 Norris Trophy finalist Victor Hedman. General manager Steve Yzerman said this stretch without Hedman — pegged at three to six weeks after he suffered a lower-body injury Jan. 11 — would be an important evaluation time to see how much he had to bolster the blue line by the Feb. 26 trade deadline. So far, the need is obvious.
RELATED: Ondrej Palat out indefinitely; Lightning calls up two.
But this is not all on the defensemen. The leaky coverage in the defensive zone is on the forwards too, with several instances of opposing players left all alone in front of the Lightning net, like in two of the Wild's goals Saturday.
Faceoffs continue to be a concern, with Tampa Bay ranked 30th in the league entering Sunday. Lost draws keep ending up in the back of the Lightning's net. It happened Thursday and Saturday. You wonder if Yzerman might try to snag a faceoff man at the deadline, like Antoine Vermette from the Ducks.
The Lightning is working hard to fix its problems, and that it has had just three practices since late December hasn't helped. But players aren't on the same page, and with frustration mounting, the collective confidence has taken a dip.
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Explore all your options"Things were definitely going our way at the beginning of the year," wing Alex Killorn said. "We were earning those bounces, but things were definitely going our way. You play in this league long enough, (you) realize there are going to be highs and lows. It's just a matter of working your way out of them."
RELATED: Expansion Golden Knights pass Lightning for top spot in NHL.
The Lightning has scored just four goals in its past three games, and you can see that is getting to some of the players. Stamkos hasn't scored in eight games and didn't even register a shot on goal Saturday. Kucherov is minus-5 in his past two games. That just makes it more glaring that Tampa Bay isn't getting much out of its bottom six, from Ryan Callahan's one goal in 36 games to Killorn's five in 46.
Maybe callups from AHL Syracuse can provide a spark, like they did last season. With Palat out, Tampa Bay recalled centers Matthew Peca and Michael Bournival on Sunday. The two were expected to join the Lightning today.
No, the Lightning didn't forget how to play hockey in a week and a half. And maybe sometime in June, this stretch will be a distant memory.
But at this point, it's getting harder to remember that time not too long ago when Tampa Bay was the toast of the league.
Joe Smith can be reached at joesmith@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_JSmith.
Monday
at Blackhawks, 8:30, Chicago
TV: NBCSN
Radio: 970-AM
/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/tbt/068511cb-90ee-446c-962b-cb030120a049.png "Times Staff Writer")
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