Burns: 3 Things we learned from a shootout loss in Chicago

The Tampa Bay Lightning saw their six-game win streak snapped Friday night following a 4-3 shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center.
The Lightning held two separate leads in the contest, but each time the Blackhawks rallied to level the score and eventually grab both points.

Tampa Bay went in front 2-0 in the first period after Anthony Cirelli's goal less than three minutes into the contest and Alex Killorn's power-play tally. Chicago's Alex DeBrincat scored consecutive goals to tie it up 2-2.
The Lightning went back into the lead at 3:20 of the third period, Ryan McDonagh hopping on a rebound and shooting past Chicago goalie Malcolm Subban.
The Blackhawks again had a response, Dominik Kubalik scoring 2:40 later to even the score 3-3.
After a scoreless overtime that featured numerous odd-man opportunities and a couple of breakaways for two of the game's most talented offensive weapons in Tampa Bay's Brayden Point and Chicago's Patrick Kane, the game went to a shootout. Lightning netminder Curtis McElhinney blocked the first two attempts he saw from DeBrincat and Patrick Kane but couldn't sto, Philipp Kurashev in the Third Round.
Victor Hedman, Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos were all denied on their shootout attempts.
The Lightning win streak is over but their point streak continues, now at seven games (6-0-1) after the shootout defeat.
Tampa Bay is 16-4-1 (34 pts.) on the season. The Lightning and the Blackhawks will play the rubber match of their three-game set Sunday.

1. THE FICKLE NATURE OF HOCKEY
On Thursday, the Lightning were outplayed for two periods but rediscovered their game in the third period, enough time to level the score and prevail in overtime on Alex Killorn's goal with 0.1 seconds remaining.
A night later, Tampa Bay controlled the action for much of the contest and played a much more complete game yet lost in the shootout.
"What does John Forslund say? 'That's hockey, baby,'" Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said, referring to the catchphrase of the former Carolina Hurricanes play-by-play announcer. "I think both teams probably know who was a little bit better tonight, and they end up winning. And I'd say for two-thirds of the game last night, they were better than us. So, it probably worked out the way it should have in reverse order."
That's how, it seems, the hockey gods have a way of evening things out.
The Lightning took 40 shots on Friday, setting a season high. They limited the Blackhawks to 27 and just five in the second period. The Bolts had much more puck possession. They weren't in their own end nearly as much as they were the night before.
The Lightning liked a lot about their game Friday.
They just didn't like the result.
Chicago probably felt the same way a night earlier.
"That's the way it goes, Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. "More importantly, we were happy with our effort from pretty much 60 minutes there playing a lot more in the O zone, not getting caught in our D zone as much. We continue to play like that, we'll give ourselves a chance to win every night. We need to continue to follow this up here. Can't just be a one every couple of games kind of thing. We've got to make sure that we take the good from this game and put forth right away from the start next game."

2. AN IDEAL START
In Thursday's first half of the back-to-back set in Chicago, the Lightning were overwhelmed at times in the first and second periods and found themselves trailing 2-0 by the time they reached their locker room for the second intermission.
Tampa Bay's leadership group challenged the team to be better during that break, and the Lightning erased the deficit in short order once the third period began, scoring a pair of goals in the first three minutes to completely change the direction of the contest.
The Lightning carried over their strong play from the last third of Thursday' s game into Friday's contest a day later. The Bolts were determined not to play on their heels. They wanted to be the aggressors. There was more urgency to their game.
And their start was about as good as they could have hoped for.
Before three minutes elapsed in the first period, the Lightning had found the back of the net, Anthony Cirelli first to a rebound at the edge of the crease and jamming the puck past Subban to provide the Lightning with the opening goal.
Midway into the first period, the Lightning went up 2-0 on the power play, Alex Killorn getting a body part on Victor Hedman's shot from the point, recreating Thursday night's dramatic overtime winner.
At that point, the Lightning appeared to be in complete command. But Chicago settled once going down 2-0, worked its way back into the game and eventually started chipping away at the Lightning lead.
"I thought we started well," Ondrej Palat said. "We got the 2-0 lead. But we lost it pretty quick, so that can't happen. We've still got to be a little bit better."
At times this season, the Lightning have been sluggish to start a game. Most of the time, they've been able to overcome poor starts. Sometimes it ends up biting them.
Friday, the Lightning had a fantastic start but couldn't make it hold up.

3. MAC OUTDUELED BY HIS COUNTERPART
Curtis McElhinney made just his fourth start of the season for the Lightning and played maybe his best game. He was called upon to make timely saves throughout the contest, but none more so than a wild overtime session that devolved into one long odd-man rush for both teams going back-and-forth.
Chicago's Patrick Kane, had a couple of breakaway opportunities on McElhinney in the overtime session but wasn't able to break down the Bolts backup netminder. McElhinney made 24-of-27 saves over 85 minutes and stopped two more shootout attempts.
"Mac did a heck of a job keeping the puck out of the net there in overtime," Ryan McDonagh said. "Played a great game overall."
McElhinney did everything he could to keep the Lightning in the game, which is all you can ask from your backup goalie.
"I thought he made all the saves we needed, and then made some huge saves in overtime on an elite player," Cooper said. "We had our chances to win and Mac gave us every opportunity to win which he's done all year. We just couldn't capitalize tonight. If we're going to play the way we did tonight, which we had been for most of the year, we'll be fine."
Malcolm Subban, meanwhile, had an outstanding game for the Blackhawks. The Lightning scored five goals against Subban in the season opener, but he was much more difficult to solve on Friday. Where Kane was dangerous in overtime for Chicago, Brayden Point got free for a couple chances in the extra session for the Lightning, only to be turned aside by Subban.
The Chicago netminder was particularly effective in the second period, when he was called upon to make three separate point-blank saves to keep his team within a goal of the Lightning. A little over seven minutes into the second, Alex DeBrincat netted his second goal of the game to level the score 2-2 to ensure a tight game the rest of the way.