OTTOWA — More mounting injuries, a half-empty arena, some tired legs and subpar special teams made for one of the Lightning’s flattest performances of the year Saturday in Ottawa.
Tampa Bay was shut out for the first time this season in a 4-0 loss to the last-place Senators, ending an otherwise successful five-game road trip and earning eight of 10 possible points.
“If we lose the first game and win the next four, we probably have a way better feeling than we do right now,” coach Jon Cooper said. “ But if we’re looking big picture, eight out of 10, that’s a pretty good trip.”
If there was ever a trap game, this was it. Tampa Bay was coming off a big win in Toronto on Thursday and playing a struggling team in the afternoon before heading home.
Even without some of their top players due to injuries, the Lightning (17-6-4) have found ways to win, climbing toward the top of the Atlantic Division standings, two points behind first-place Florida going into the day. Saturday’s loss was their first in regulation since Nov. 28, a span of seven games.
When the Lightning took the ice Saturday at the Canadian Tire Centre, they were without six regulars.
Though outmanned, they didn’t help their own cause. Playing well despite a 1-0 deficit after one period, the Lightning allowed two quick power-play goals in the second period by Brady Tkachuk, who notched his first career hat trick.
Already without top scorers Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov until next month, and top right-shot defenseman Erik Cernak sidelined until at least Christmas, two-way center Anthony Cirelli missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. And defenseman Zach Bogosian was a late scratch with a lingering lower-body injury from Thursday’s game. Backup goaltender Brian Elliott (19 saves) started in net for Andrei Vasilevskiy, who received the day off.
“We’ve dealt with it since pretty much Game 1 or 2 of the season, and every team deals with it,” defenseman Ryan McDonagh said of the injuries. “We know what’s expected of us. We might be playing with different guys here and there and throughout the year; we trust anybody that puts on that jersey and is in the lineup that night.”
After allowing two goals in the win at Toronto, the Lightning penalty-kill unit yielded two goals less than two minutes apart. The unit is without several key pieces — Cirelli, Cernak and Bogosian — but Cooper said the Lightning hurt themselves with penalties.
“We’re taking too many penalties,” he said. “The best penalty kill is not taking penalties, and when you’re going to take a bunch of them, you’re playing with fire, and we did that tonight.”
After Mathieu Joseph, another top penalty killer, went to the box for hooking, the Senators (8-16-1) put pressure on the net. Elliott made a pair of remarkable saves, but with the Lightning defense leaking to the left side, Tim Stutzle’s backhanded pass found Tkachuk open closing in on the far post. His shot gave Ottawa a 2-0 lead 3:32 into the second.
The Lightning’s Boris Katchouk was then sent off for high-sticking, and Tkachuk redirected defenseman Thomas Chabot’s slap shot from above the circles into the net 5:31 into the second.
Tkachuk completed his hat trick with an empty-net goal with 3:43 left in the game.
The Lightning was 0-for-5 on the power play, unable to score in 10 minutes with the man advantage. That included two second-period power plays that netted just one shot attempt. They finished just 2-for-15 on the power play over the road trip.
“It was a penalty-filled gamed, and obviously we were on the wrong side of the special teams game tonight,” McDonagh said. “The power play didn’t get much going. We only had like one post and a couple good chances. Obviously their (power play) was clicking ... so it was probably the difference in the game.”
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