The Tampa Bay Lightning do not have the results to show for the effort halfway through their four-game road trip, but coach Jon Cooper and his group like the on-ice showing.
After dropping tight games in Toronto and Montreal, the Lightning will travel to Chicago and meet the Blackhawks on Friday for the first of two matchups with the Central Division club in five days.
It would have been justified if the postgame mood around the locker room Tuesday night in Montreal was much worse and players had been surly and quick to exit, or maybe if a coach had been testy with reporters.
Despite owning the second-best goal differential in the Eastern Conference (plus-36), Cooper’s club suffered its second straight regulation road setback against an Atlantic Division opponent.
That dropped the team’s record to 3-8-0 within the ultra-competitive division and 10-12-2 away.
“We were a lot better over 60 minutes than we were (Monday) night,” captain Victor Hedman said after losing on Jake Evans’ game-winning, one-timer with 2:15 left in the 2-all game. “We’ve just got to move on.”
Cooper felt the same way and was looking forward to better results and some points in Chicago and Detroit, which will complete the four-game, Original Six journey.
“You know what, sometimes you play really well and you don’t win,” Cooper said. “At worst, we deserved points out of (the Montreal) game, but ultimately it’s a humbling game. … (These) are character moments for our team. We have to fight through this.
“You’ve got to pull positives out of this game, but you sure as hell can’t accept the results.”
With his goal Tuesday, Nikita Kucherov stretched his point streak to an NHL-high 10 games and continues to rank third in the league in points (70).
Defenseman Darren Raddysh has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past five games.
The new year for the Blackhawks has been pretty much the same as the season’s first half: nagging spells of losing streaks that have overshadowed success.
Chicago has suffered through four separate streaks of at least four consecutive losses this season — two of those being five-gamers.
The most recent bad stretch came Jan. 10-16 as interim coach Anders Sorensen’s team dropped games to the Red Wings, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames before losing in a shootout to the Nashville Predators.
However, Chicago will enter Friday’s game fresh and rested: It has not played since a 4-3 overtime setback Monday against the Carolina Hurricanes on home ice.
The game ended with Sebastian Aho potting the game-winner 59 seconds into the extra session and prevented the Blackhawks from their first two-game winning streak since a three-game stretch in mid-December.
Chicago does have points in three straight games (1-0-2), but Sorensen said the focus lately has been on protecting leads with better defense.
“We’re trying to defend on the front of our foot, meaning higher up in the ice and trying to forecheck more,” Sorensen said Wednesday after practice. “We’ve got to be better on that for sure.”
Connor Bedard tops Chicago with 41 points in 47 games and leads with three game-winning goals among his 13 times hitting the net.
Tyler Bertuzzi paces the club with 17 tallies, while Ryan Donato has 14.
–Field Level Media
