"We really skated against San Jose," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said following Monday's practice at AMALIE Arena. "Every line was going. We were getting chances, but it all comes down to how much we were skating. We were on top of them all night."
The Lightning changed up their lines prior to Saturday's game in an effort to spur a stagnating offense. The Bolts are one of the top scoring teams in the NHL but prior to the game against San Jose, had scored just three goals at 5-on-5 play over their last four games. Two of those goals were scored by defensemen and the other was netted by Cory Conacher, playing his first game with Tampa Bay this season.
The result of the line juggling Saturday was mostly positive. Nikita Kucherov ended a season-long six-game drought without a goal after scoring a pair of markers. Tyler Johnson ended his career-long 15 game goalless streak with a couple goals of his own, and Cory Conacher got on the scoresheet for his second goal in as many games, giving three of the Lightning's four lines at least one goal.
"It doesn't really matter who we're putting on the ice," Lightning forward Chris Kunitz said. "We have high skill players that can go out and make plays. Just because the lines are changing doesn't mean we're panicking. We're just trying to make our team better and slowly chug our way to 82 regular season games and try to make sure we're playing our best hockey at the end."
Kunitz said the Lightning were playing their style of hockey for the full 60 minutes against San Jose and the effort, energy and execution are all things the Bolts can build on going forward.
"You don't want to be trending the wrong way for too long at any point in the season," Kunitz said. "You don't want to get too high but you also don't want to get too low. Confidence is a tough thing to come back, so when you lose that or you lose your swag, if you lose that, you kind of lose your identity. So we have to make sure we come out and play with the same energy and play with that passion that we need every single night and prove that we can do it against every single team in the league."
Video: Cooper on shoot first attitude vs. San JoseDOTCHIN RETURNS: Lightning defenseman Jake Dotchin practiced with his teammates for the first time on Monday since suffering an undisclosed injury prior to the Bolts' win over Chicago on November 22.
Dotchin was wearing a red no-contact jersey, but Cooper is hopeful he'll be able to return at some point during Tampa Bay's four-game home stand, which continues Tuesday with game No. 2 versus the New York Islanders.
"He was zipping around there in his red jersey," Cooper said. "We've got to get that to blue."
Dotchin has missed six-straight games.
Braydon Coburn, who sat out his first game of the season on Saturday with a lower-body injury, is "making progress" according to Cooper but still day-to-day. Coburn didn't practice on Monday.
CONACHER STAYING?: With Cedric Paquette able to return for Tuesday's game after serving a one-game suspension on Saturday for boarding Boston's Torey Krug November 29, recent callup Cory Conacher would appear to be the odd-man out and returned to AHL Syracuse.
But Conacher has made enough of an impression in his two appearances this season that he'll stick around for the time being according to Cooper.
Conacher scored the Lightning's fourth goal in the 5-2 victory over San Jose, his second goal in as many games with the Lightning this season.
"He's played well in the time that he's been in there," Cooper said. "We shuffled the deck a little bit, but as I said, all the lines played well (Saturday). So, we're not looking to make any changes as of yet."
Conacher has been producing at a high rate for Syracuse too this season, scoring seven goals and recording a team-high 15 points in 18 games.
