Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper noticed the wear on his club after it lost for the eighth time in 16 home games on Monday night.
The Lightning will try to get on the north side of their .500 home mark on Thursday night when they host the Los Angeles Kings in the first of two meetings between the clubs in a two-week span.
The Florida Panthers bolted to a 2-0 lead vs. Tampa Bay on Monday in the first four minutes and took full advantage of fewer chances. They killed all five Lightning power plays in a 5-2 win that took a toll on Cooper’s club.
“Honestly, I thought it was a brutal hockey game,” Cooper said after Tampa Bay fell to 2-5-1 in its past eight games. “(Florida was) on the fourth game of a road trip in a couple of different time zones, so they’re tired. You’ve got us in our fifth game … in five different cities. It was basically what I thought were two tired hockey teams.”
Brandon Hagel, who had 10 goals and 14 points during a recent seven-game stretch, was injured on a hit by Florida’s Seth Jones. Hagel skated on just two shifts in the third period before leaving the game.
Hagel, who did not practice Wednesday, joins a list of injured Lightning players that included defensemen Victor Hedman, Erik Cernak, Ryan McDonagh and Emil Lilleberg. McDonagh, however, was at practice Wednesday while Hagel was not.
Tampa Bay reassigned Brandon Halverson to Syracuse of the American Hockey League on Tuesday, putting fellow goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy back in the lineup.
The club’s defensemen were responsible for producing both goals against the Panthers: J.J. Moser scored his third goal of the season, and Max Crozier added the first of his NHL career in his 33rd game.
Like the Lightning, the Kings made a pair of moves involving their goaltending on Tuesday as they prepared to play the Panthers on Wednesday.
Starter Darcy Kuemper was knocked out of Monday’s 4-1 setback to the Stars by Dallas’ Mikko Rantanen, sending the No. 1 goalie to the injured list and prompting the recall of Pheonix Copley from the Ontario Reign of the AHL.
On Oct. 2, the Lightning claimed Copley off waivers from Los Angeles but returned the netminder to the Kings two weeks later in a trade for future considerations.
Against Florida on Wednesday night, scoring frustrations resurfaced as the Panthers beat the Kings 3-2 despite a late power play and 6-on-4 push by the visitors in the final minutes.
Los Angeles also was stopped three times on breakaways by Panthers goalie Daniil Tarasov, who denied Trevor Moore twice and Kevin Fiala once.
Over the past 15 games, the Kings have scored two or fewer goals on 11 occasions.
“To grow a lead would be nice,” defenseman Drew Doughty said after the defeat to Dallas. “The bottom line is we’re not putting pucks to the net. I mean, it’s the same old thing about having guys at the net and screening the goalie and getting tips and dirty goals.
“I still don’t believe we have enough of that. We’re too perimeter.”
–Field Level Media
