Burns: 3 Things we learned from a comeback bid coming up short

Tampa Bay tried valiantly to rally during Saturday's road-trip-ending contest in St. Louis.
Unfortunately for the Lightning, a 1:15 stretch of the first period ultimately proved to be their undoing.
St. Louis scored three goals over that 75 second run of play midway through the opening period to stun the Bolts. Tampa Bay crept its way back into game and controlled the action through much of the second and third periods, but the early deficit proved to be too much to overcome against a St. Louis team fighting for its playoff life.

The Lightning fell to 58-14-4 on the season (120 points). They'll play their final two home games of the regular season starting Monday when they host Atlantic Division rival Boston at AMALIE Arena. The Bolts need four wins over their final six regular season games to tie the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings for most wins in a single season in NHL history.
But first, how Saturday's game in St. Louis got away from the Lightning in Three Things we learned from a comeback bid coming up just short.

1. THE FURIOUS FLURRY
When Robert Thomas scored a power-play goal for St. Louis 11:30 into Saturday's contest, Thomas getting a clear look at an open net on a third rebound opportunity for the Blues, the Lightning were dissatisfied with their ability to box out and tidy up the area in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy's crease, the Blues getting too many second- and third-chance opportunities and making the Bolts pay.
Tampa Bay's ineffectiveness defensively continued in the shifts immediately after going down 1-0, and the lack of attention to its own end of the ice contributed to two more goals in quick succession.
Just 48 seconds after Thomas got the Blues on the board, Alexander Steen scored on another rebound opportunity following a turnover in the Bolts' end.
On the next shift, Vladimir Tarasenko was wide open on the back post off a 2-on-1 rush, and the Lightning were down three goals before they had time to even catch their breath from the first goal.
"I wasn't happy with the way we played in the first," Lightning forward Alex Killorn said. "It seemed like we were kind of waiting to see what they were going to do."
Tampa Bay's indecisiveness burned them. In a game the Lightning actually played pretty well in for much of the action, that minute and 15 of the first period where they lost focus was all it took to put an end to their seven-game win streak, the longest active streak in the league entering Saturday.
"I liked the way we handled ourselves except for that little bit of a meltdown for 1:15," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "Tough league to win in and this is a tough building playing against a good team."

2. THE RESPONSE
Despite trailing 3-0 after 20 minutes, the Lightning's confidence never waivered. That's what's special about this group: No matter the situation they find themselves in, they always have the belief they can find a way to win.
They nearly did again in St. Louis on Saturday.
Alex Killorn ignited the Lightning comeback effort 27 seconds into the second period on a penalty kill, Anthony Cirelli winning a face-off draw in the Blues zone, making a move to get free in close and dishing the puck to the far post for Killorn, who scored shorthanded at the net to get the Bolts on the board.
"(Cirelli) just does a great job jumping their center, and I don't think they were ready for that just because on the power play you don't assume that will happen, kind of a bounce like that," Killorn said about Tampa Bay's 10th shorthanded goal this season. "All year, we've played together. I can't remember how many games we've played without each other. We definitely have a certain chemistry. He works so hard that he's fun to play with."
About seven minutes later, Ryan McDonagh threaded a pass onto the back post for Brayden Point, who tapped the puck into the open net to get the Lightning to within a goal at 3-2.
Brayden Schenn scored at 14:24 of the second to push the Blues advantage back to two goals, but Tampa Bay continued to claw back, Steven Stamkos wristing a shot from the slot past Blues goalie Jordan Binnington at 4:46 of the third to get the Lightning back to within a goal.
The Bolts had plenty of opportunities to add to its goal tally over the course of the game. Nikita Kucherov hit a couple of posts. Point fired a puck from the right circle that got through Binnington, but Alex Pietrangelo was able to sweep it out of the blue paint before it crossed the goal line. Anthony Cirelli made an unbelievable move to jet around Vince Dunn on a rush, but Binnington came up with a big glove save to keep it a one-goal game.
The Lightning actually tied the game briefly on a Stamkos power-play one-timer from the office, but St. Louis challenged for offside and the video review showed Point was slightly offside before the puck entered the zone.
"We had a lot of good looks, a couple posts and crossbars and disallowed goal," Bolts defenseman Victor Hedman said. "We'll take a lot of positives out of this game playing against a great team. They made a hell of a start, and they were able to withstand."
Tampa Bay finished with 42 shots on the night and limited St. Louis to 26.
"(St. Louis) is a big, strong, physical team that doesn't give you a lot," Cooper said. "We had close to 50 shots on goal, a plethora of scoring chances but they just didn't go in for us tonight. You can't sit here and say we didn't give ourselves a chance. And you've got to like that about our group especially down 3-0 and the crowd was into it. The boys circled the wagon and made one heck of an effort to come back, just fell short."

3. POINT JOINS THE 40-GOAL CLUB
Brayden Point netted his 40th goal of the season on his second period marker, recording just the 10th 40-goal season in Lightning history.
Remember: Point's only 23 years old and in his third season in the NHL. Reaching such a high goal total at a relatively early moment in his career is a remarkable achievement.
"I was there when Stammer scored 50 his second year. It's special," Hedman said. "Pointer's just so much more than just a goal scorer and a playmaker. He's such a good player both ends of the ice and so valuable to our team. Obviously very happy for him, and he's not going to stop here, he's going to keep going, keep improving."
Point became only the sixth different Tampa Bay player to reach 40 goals in a season, joining Stamkos (4 times), Vincent Lecavalier (2 times), Martin St. Louis, Brian Bradley and Nikita Kucherov. And he was the catalyst for the Lightning's comeback effort against the Blues. He registered eight shots on the night, matching his career high for shots set previously on Jan. 4, 2018 at Montreal, and had a couple other near misses that might have changed the outcome of the game had they connected.
"He was great," Cooper said. "Guys were fired up. I thought he had an exceptional game tonight. He was driving the bus. That line, Kuch was great, Johnny was working. All the guys were working…We were real happy for him to get 40. That's a big number."
Steven Stamkos nearly joined him in the 40-goal club Saturday night too. With 38 goals entering St. Louis, Stamkos scored early in the third period to get to 39 and had No. 40 on the board before it was taken off following a successful challenge by St. Louis.
With Point at 40, Stamkos at 39 and Kucherov at 37 goals, the Lightning could become the first NHL team with three 40-goal scorers since the 1995-96 Pittsburgh Penguins (Mario Lemieux - 69, Jaromir Jagr - 62, Petr Nedved - 45).