The Tampa Bay Lightning road-trip came to an end in disappointing fashion as they will come home with just a single point from the three games after dropping Tuesday night’s game in overtime against the Buffalo Sabres. After trailing 2-0 after the first period, the Lightning are fairly fortunate to be coming home with any points.
Tampa Bay was on their way to a third straight regulation loss but Brandon Hagel played hero by forcing the game to overtime with seven seconds remaining in the third. Hagel had both of Tampa Bay’s goals on the night and now leads the club with four goals through four games.
HAGS WITH THE BUZZER BEATER 🚨 pic.twitter.com/jPwFFMISBX
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) October 18, 2023
Hagel’s heroics were short lived after Tampa Bay did not touch the puck once in overtime and Buffalo won their first game of the season thanks to Dylan Cozens less than two minutes into overtime.
Struggles on the Road
Getting one point in three games is obviously not a recipe for success. Once concerning factor is that Tampa Bay was not a very good team away from home last season either. Tampa Bay was 18-22-1 on the road last season and their struggles on the road have continued over to this season.
Another concerning note is that their three losses on the road came at the hands of Detroit, Ottawa and Buffalo. All Atlantic Division teams. All teams projected to start knocking on the door of the playoff picture this season and replace a team like the Lightning. Tampa Bay now has a chance to get some home cooking going as they are home for the remainder of October with a five-game home stand.
Better Defensively but Offense Lacks
Through their first three games of the season, the Lightning defense was definitely a large talking point for the reason they have started the way they have. Tuesday night was probably their best game of the season defending in their own end. They were beat by a couple of breakdowns in the first period and that created a steep mountain to climb.
You cannot even blame the lack of success early in the season on not having Andrei Vasilevskiy. Jonas Johansson has been fine and had another solid night on Tuesday.
While the defense may have been better, the offense struggled Tuesday night. The Buffalo defense are a big group and they made for a difficult night for the Lightning. Tampa Bay was only able to get 23 shots on goal and only had 17 scoring chances for and the Lightning missed the net a ton as well.
Shuffling the Deck
In an effort to try and get something going offensively, Jon Cooper has never shied away from juggling the lines. He started to do so on Tuesday in the second period and the Lightning played a pretty strong second and third period. The biggest change was bumping Alex Barre-Boulet up to the top line with Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Pont. The trio was very threatening during their time together and it will be interesting to see if they get the chance to stick together going forward.
Barre-Boulet does not look out of place with Point and Kucherov
— Bolts By The Bay (@BoltsByTheBay) October 18, 2023
Clearly it is still very early in the season and it will take time for new pieces in the lineup to gel and pick up the production. The Lighting have even dressed a different lineup in all four games so far as well. The final two periods from Tuesday should give the Lightning some confidence for when they return home and look to right the ship.