Burns: 3 Things from a comeback bid coming up short

The Tampa Bay Lightning lost their fourth-consecutive game on Thursday, going down 5-4 in St. Louis, a city they haven't won in since December 18, 2009.
The Bolts' defeat was their sixth straight to the Blues. Tampa Bay hasn't dropped four in a row in regulation since a six-game winless streak April 11-21 during the 2012-13 season.

All was not lost for the Lightning, however.
Like the previous three games, Tampa Bay had to dig itself out of an early hole after falling behind 2-0. The Lightning faced a 4-1 deficit minutes into the second period, and another loss seemed inevitable.
But something happened over the final 35 minutes in St. Louis. The Lightning regained their footing and a bit of their swagger after several poor performances. They started to resemble the team fans have grown accustomed to seeing over the last couple seasons. And they gave the Blues everything they could handle in a fight to the final whistle.
The Lightning came up a goal short Thursday night in St. Louis.
But hopefully the momentum they gained over the final half of the game will carry over to their contest against the Washington Capitals on Saturday at AMALIE Arena.
The Bolts are reeling currently, but now, at least, there's a bit of hope on the horizon.
3 Things from a fourth-straight loss ahead
1. TOO MANY PENALTIES
The Lightning entered St. Louis having gone on the power play just four times in their previous three games.
That trend continued Thursday. The Bolts were credited for two power plays. The first, which came 1:34 into the third period, resulted in Nikita Kucherov's team-leading 12th goal of the season and third power-play goal. Kucherov tallied just seven seconds into the power play.
The second power play was a misnomer as it happened with 2.2 seconds remaining in the game.
St. Louis, meanwhile, benefitted from seven power plays, the most allowed by the Lightning in a game this season. The first six power plays of the game all went to the Blues, who scored on three of them, the Bolts giving up three power-play goals for the first time since a 5-3 loss to the Capitals on December 18 last season.
"They had 10 minutes of power-play time; we had 10 seconds," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "Now you're sucking a lot of momentum because you're killing so many penalties, and eventually that cost us."
The Lightning seemed to get a foothold in the game when Cedric Paquette netted the first of his two goals, cutting St. Louis' lead to 2-1 midway through the first.
Kevin Shattenkirk scored less than three minutes later on the power play, however, to put St. Louis firmly back in control.
Early in the second period, Shattenkirk struck again on the man-advantage with a shot from the point that found its way through a host of bodies and rested in the back of the net for a 4-1 Blues lead.
"For the most part, 5-on-5 aspect of the game, I was really happy with," Coper said. "Ultimately, it came down to special teams, and we weren't good enough tonight on the PK."

2. SIGNS OF PROGRESS
The Lightning had every reason to throw in the towel after Shattenkirk's second goal, which put St. Louis ahead 4-1.
After all, the Bolts had lost three in a row. They worked all day during a practice session Wednesday drilling defensive zone coverage, hoping that by focusing on their net they could jump start their play at both ends.
A little more than 20 minutes into the St. Louis game, however, the Lightning had already given up four goals and were down 4-1, a seemingly insurmountable lead against a team the Bolts historically haven't played well against.
But Tampa Bay didn't give up. The Lightning didn't go through the motions of another loss. They kept fighting.
And they almost pulled off a stunning comeback.
Only Vladimir Tarasenko's third goal of the game, which came against the run of play sandwiched between goals by Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and a second from Paquette, prevented the Bolts from completing the rally.
"We just kept going (trailing 4-1)," Cooper said. "The guys felt this was a winnable hockey game for us. You can't sit there and play the game not trying to make a mistake. You've got to play the game with passion and be aggressive and throw the chips out there and see where they land. We did that."
The Lightning had opportunities to net the tying goal but came up inches short. Nikita Nesterov had a one-timer from the slot narrowly miss the target with the Lightning down 4-3. Soon after, Tarasenko netted his hat trick to push the deficit to two.
After Paquette got the Bolts within a goal, Joel Vermin had a great look on a shorthanded two-on-one break with Ondrej Palat. His one-timer sailed just over the mark.
"It's tough," Cooper said. "I thought we should have had the fourth goal earlier. Nesterov had an opening in the slot and threw it wide, and then we give it up seconds later to make it 5-3. We had a chance to tie it on a penalty kill. Vermin gets really good wood on it, has the goalie beat and just throws it over the net. That's just how it's going for us right now. But, I thought we played well enough to get points, and that's kind of how you come out of these things. Sometimes you don't get the points, and maybe next game we will."
The Lightning desperately need points in their next game. Their rally in St. Louis was a window into how they can accomplish that goal against the Caps.

3. LINEUP SHAKEUP
In an attempt to get the Bolts out of their funk and perhaps send a message, Cooper decided to shift the lineup a bit on Thursday.
Andrei Vasilevskiy started again after getting the nod two days earlier in Columbus, his first back-to-back starts of the season.
The Lightning recalled forwards Joel Vermin and Michael Bournival from Syracuse, in part to help with recent injuries the team has been dealing with like the lower-body injury Ryan Callahan sustained prior to the Columbus game.
Both Vermin and Bournival played on Thursday, seeing their first NHL action of the season. For Bournival, it was his first game in the league since skating February 28, 2015 for Montreal.
Like they did last year when the Bolts were struggling around the same time of the season, the reinforcements from the Crunch injected life and energy into the Bolts' lineup.
Bournival got one shot on goal during his 6:36 of ice time.
And Joel Vermin, playing his seventh career NHL game, reminded Cooper why it was so hard to send him to Syracuse out of training camp, notching two assists and finishing plus-2 in 16:13.
Vermin entered Thursday's game with just one career point (an assist).
He tripled his scoring production in one night.
"Vermin was outstanding," Cooper said. "That whole line [Vermin, Paquette and Jonathan Drouin] was good."
The Lightning may have lost on Thursday, but, once again, they found they have depth in Syracuse, depth that can come in and contribute right away at the NHL level when needed.