Burns: 3 Things we learned from a loss in Sunrise

It will come down to one final regular season game to determine who grabs home ice for the first-ever playoff series between in-state rivals Tampa Bay and Florida.
Tampa Bay entered the two-game set versus Florida to close out the regular season needing just one win in regulation to finish second in the Central Division and earn home ice in the First Round against the Panthers.
The Lightning will have to go for that victory Monday after they were thwarted 5-1 by the Panthers Saturday at the BB&T Center.

The Bolts were already facing a sizable challenge coming into Saturday's tilt against a Panthers team they've split six games against this season. That challenge became immense when Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh and Jan Rutta were all held out of the game with day-to-day injuries.
In their place, Luke Schenn, Fredrik Claesson - making his Tampa Bay debut - and Ben Thomas performed admirably. But an unfortunate stretch past the midway point of the second period proved to be the Bolts' undoing in the 5-1 loss.
The Lightning-Panthers rivalry has always been intense. It reached a new level on Saturday and promises to ramp up even higher when the two teams meet in the playoffs.
Here how the action unfolded in the penultimate regular season game for both teams.

1. SHORTHANDED TO START
Tampa Bay faced an uphill battle before the puck was ever dropped Saturday when the team announced Victor Hedman (lower-body injury), Ryan McDonagh (upper-body injury) and Jan Rutta (lower-body injury) would not play.
All three are considered day-to-day.
Hedman's injury is the most concerning as, aside from maybe Andrei Vasilevskiy, he's the most indispensable member of the Lightning. McDonagh didn't play the final eight or so minutes from Friday's home loss to Dallas, so his absence wasn't as surprising considering the quick turnaround with the game the following day in Sunrise.
Rutta missed 18 games with a lower-body injury before returning versus Dallas. His absence Saturday is troublesome in the sense that you hope he didn't re-aggravate his prior injury.
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said after the game he hopes to have all three back for the first game of the playoffs but will have to wait to know for sure.
"We're planning on it, but we'll have to see," he said.
The Lightning blue line was thrown in flux as a result. Mikhail Sergachev partnered with Erik Cernak. Frederik Claesson saw action with David Savard and Luke Schenn played his off side alongside Ben Thomas to compensate for the loss of two left-shot defensemen.
The six competed hard and played well. But losing a Norris Trophy candidate in Hedman, one of the NHL's best defensive defenseman in McDonagh and a steady performer who the coaches trust in nearly all situations in Rutta was always going to be a difficult challenge for the Lightning to overcome.
"You take the best defenseman in the world out of your lineup and another unbelievable player for us who eats up huge minutes and is great defensively and huge on the PK, you're not going to replace those guys but other guys had opportunities," Schenn said. "I think guys did a good job honestly. Ben Thomas hasn't played a ton of NHL games, and he competed. Freddy Claesson hasn't played in a few months, he competed real hard too. Guys were kind of thrown in different situations, and that's the way things go sometimes. Injuries happen and the main thing is we want these guys back for the games in the foreseeable future, and they're a huge part of it."
Schenn did his part, scoring the Lightning's lone goal when he crashed the net and powered a one-timer from the slot past Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky. Schenn got two-thirds of the way to a Gordie Howe hat trick when he fought Ryan Lomberg in the second period.
"Just a couple weird bounces that kind of pushed the score in a different way, but I think we did a lot of good things tonight," Savard said. "I'm proud of the guys to step up for each other. We competed hard. We created some chances. We hit some posts. The score could have been different and maybe would have turned into a different game. But I think we battled hard. It's going to be intense against those guys. They're a big rival to us, and we've just got to compete hard every night and we'll be good."

2. THOSE WEIRD BOUNCES
After falling behind 2-0 on Sam Bennett's power-play goal a little over three minutes into the second period, the Lightning settled down and started to play their game.
They held possession for longer stretches, were able to keep the puck buried in the Florida zone more than they had in the first period and were getting some decent scoring opportunities.
That push was rewarded when Luke Schenn got free in the slot and one-timed a shot past Bobrovsky after Yanni Gourde set him up with the feed.
That goal seemed to give the Lightning even more life as they continued to press in search of the tying score.
But a bit of bad luck went against them, and the Bolts never really seemed to recover.
From behind the Lightning net, Alex Wennberg tried to pass in front for Anthony Duclair. The puck deflected off a diving Savard and popped high in the air in front of the net. Erik Cernak tried to knock it out of the air with his stick but missed. The puck hit the ice, and the backspin on it sent it over the goal line and past an unaware Vasilevskiy to re-establish Florida's two-goal lead about 13 minutes into the second.
"It's not going to go your way for every game, every situation, every play," Schenn said. "Forget about it, move on, correct the mistakes that we did have control over. We didn't execute on some other fronts. You're going to get bad bounces at times but there's some things we can correct. We get them again in a couple days and then on to the playoffs. It's going to be hard-fought and it's going to come down to creating your own bounces."
A couple minutes later, Jonathan Huberdeau backhanded a turned over puck from the slot toward net. Vasilevskiy was able to slow it down but not enough from crossing the goal line, and Florida owned a near-insurmountable 4-1 lead at that point.
"We'd won a face-off, we had full possession of the puck and then we just turned it over and get scored on," Cooper said. "I think those two together right at the end of a period, that made it a little tough on us."
Florida's fifth goal and Wennberg's third was fluky too. His shot from a couple strides inside the blue line took a deflection, knuckled off the post and in.

3. TEMPERATURE RISING
Saturday's contest figured to be hotly contested considering the home-ice advantage at stake and the animosity shown between the two teams in the six previous meetings this season.
The rivalry reached another level, however, in the seventh contest between the Bolts and Cats.
Tampa Bay and Florida combined for 156 penalty minutes, the second most for a road contest in Lightning history.
The third period alone saw 118 penalty minutes between the two teams, the third most overall in a period in Lightning history.
Tampa Bay racked up 78 penalty minutes itself, more than doubling its previous season high and the second most all-time in a Lightning road contest.
Luke Schenn and Barclay Goodrow both dropped the gloves. Fredrik Claesson, Anthony Cirelli, Yanni Gourde, Pat Maroon and Schenn were all assessed 10-minute misconduct penalties.
Certainly, the Lightning and Panthers don't like one another, and that disdain was on full display at the BB&T Center.
"It's funny, you go through a whole regular season and flip of a switch, you get down to the last game or two and all of a sudden playoff hockey and it turns into a men's league," Schenn said. "Happens year after year. That's why you need everyone to stick together. We saw it last year. We see it year after year, the teams that win, everyone sticks together and everyone plays a physical brand of hockey. It's funny how all of a sudden a switch flips and totally different game and comes down to competing and one-on-one battles and executing. You've got to show up and have will. We'll all stick together. It's going to be hard fought on both sides."
A lot of times, stuff that happens during the regular season doesn't carry over to the playoffs, but Schenn thinks this situation will be different, especially with the teams playing each other twice at the end of the regular season before starting their seven-game series a few days later.
"You play them the last two games of the regular season. That doesn't happen very often, and then you get the team in the first round of the playoffs, so this is obviously a unique situation," he said. "On top of that, both teams are fighting for home ice. No question it's going to carry over. Both are proud teams. We've got a bit of a rivalry going on with them and played a number of times. They've had a really good year. It's a different brand of hockey in the playoffs. We obviously want to compete as hard as we can against one another and for sure I think it's going to carry over."
Monday's regular season finale probably won't feature as much of the animosity as both teams will be wary of unnecessary plays that could lead to injury before the games that actually matter.
But make no mistake, these teams don't like each other and that should lend to an incredible first round playoff series between the two.
"I think we play between the whistle, but if anything happens, we'll always step up," Savard said. "I think that's what happened tonight. I don't think anybody was out of line from our side, and I think we've just got to keep that same attitude. We play between the whistle hard, play physical. I think we'll be fine. We have a lot of guys that aren't scared in there. We'll go to bat for each other, so it's fine."