Once again, pretty good wasn't good enough against the Washington Capitals.
Tampa Bay skated stride-for-stride with the top-ranked team in the NHL Saturday night at Capital One Arena. With 10 minutes remaining in the contest, the Lightning tied the game 1-1 on Nikita Kucherov's 200th career NHL goal.
But an uncharacteristic ineffectiveness on the power play kept the Bolts from adding to their tally, and a defensive zone coverage issue with less than eight minutes to go in regulation allowed Dmitry Orlov to power a shot from the top of the left circle off the post and past Curtis McElhinney in a 3-1 Capitals victory.
Washington swept the three-game regular season series from the Lightning, who were competitive in all three games and surely deserved more than one of a possible six points.
That's the way the season has been trending for the Bolts, however.
Burns: 3 Things we learned from getting swept by the Caps
Bryan Burns on the power play's struggles, a missed opportunity and a tough two periods

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Jon Cooper on the loss to WSH

Brayden Point on missed opportunities

Postgame | Victor Hedman