Burns: Three Things we learned from a shootout loss to Colorado

Through five games of the 2021-22 season, the Tampa Bay Lightning are still searching for a things they undoubtedly thought would already have happened by now.
The Lightning have yet to score a first period goal. They're the only team in the National Hockey League that hasn't.
The Bolts haven't held a lead at any point in regulation this season.
They're without a regulation win. And they still haven't won at home, both of those dubious stats holding up following a 4-3 shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche Saturday night at AMALIE Arena.

Tampa Bay moved to 2-2-1 on the season following the Colorado defeat, the Lightning picking up five of a possible 10 points so far this season, a remarkable achievement considering how challenging they've made it on themselves.
The Bolts rallied three separate times from a one-goal deficit to force extra time and gain a point against Colorado. Brayden Point leveled the score 3-all with 2:35 remaining and the Lightning net empty for the team's third goal this season at 6-on-5 and fifth overall with an extra attacker.
The Bolts had three quality chances in the final minute of overtime to complete the comeback but couldn't quite connect. In the shootout, Colorado answered whenever Tampa Bay nudged ahead, and in the Sixth Round, the Bolts having already failed in their attempt of the round, Cale Makar was true with his attempt to secure both points for the Avalanche.
The Lightning begin a quick road trip Monday, starting their first back-to-back set in Buffalo, where they'll try to get some of the many firsts that have escaped them so far this season.

1. LEAD CONTINUES TO ELUDE THE LIGHTNING
It's hard to fathom Tampa Bay hasn't played with the lead at any point this season.
Every game has been an uphill climb for the Lightning because usually they're playing from behind and trying to catch up.
The starts have been better for the Bolts as the season has progressed. But they're not being rewarded.
On Saturday, the Lightning had a lot of the puck in the first period and outshot the Avalanche 12-6 but found themselves trailing on the scoreboard 1-0 when they entered the locker room at the break because Gabriel Landeskog was able to score a little over nine minutes into the contest.
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said even with the shots advantage, his team still wasn't shooting enough for his liking.
"We just passed up (shots), and when you're leaving plays out there, now you're leaving things to chance," he said.
Mathieu Joseph tied the game 1-all at 6:34 of the second period when he stuck with a loose puck in the slot and backhanded a shot past Colorado goalie Darcy Kuemper.
"Jo gets a goal on a fanned shot when he just went to the right area to go to, whacked away at it and it's in the net," Cooper said. "Those are goals you have to score. Look at Colorado's first goal, basically the same thing, just go to the dirty areas and whack around."
The score wasn't tied for long. Mikko Rantanen finished off a 2-on-1 rush chance at 11:51 of the second to put Colorado back in front.
The Lightning tied again early in the third, Steven Stamkos netting his team-leading fourth goal to make it a 2-2 game.
That tie lasted about six minutes. Nathan MacKinnon ripped a shot five seconds into a power play from the top of the left circle past Vasilevskiy to nudge Colorado in front yet again. Brayden Point scored late in the contest to level the score and force overtime, but it was a game where the Lightning were constantly chasing, trying to get back on even terms.
"Every season's different I guess," Joseph said. "Obviously, we would like to play with the lead. We'd be a much better team playing with the lead. But I like our resiliency. There's some stuff you can't control. I think we're trying to have good starts and sometimes it's tough. I think we started three games with back-to-back penalties or something like that. It's tough for momentum to get your way early, but at the end of the day, I think we just have to battle. That's stuff we can't control. We're trying to score obviously. But that's definitely something we have to emphasize and try to play with the lead."
It feels like once the Lightning get that first lead of the season, the confidence will come, and it'll breed more consistency in their game.
"When you lose a guy like (Nikita Kucherov), it shakes things up a bit in terms of trying to find your chemistry with lines and breaking some guys up that worked well and trying to find some balance," Stamkos said. "We talked about, same with the power play, it's going to be an adjustment period for that and probably 5-on-5 as well. We're not sitting here getting 15, 20 shots. We're generating some chances. We'd like to see them go in and play with the lead a little more moving forward."

2. GRINDING POINTS
Considering they've yet to score first, yet to score in the first period and yet to play with the lead, the Lightning have done pretty well to grab five of a possible 10 points so far this season.
This team has shown a lot of resiliency early, whether it's overcoming three separate three-goal deficits to win in overtime in Detroit, rallying in a tough environment to score a second-straight OT victory in D.C. or coming back three times against one of the NHL's best teams in Colorado to grab a point Saturday.
That grinding mentality should serve them well once they finally do break through for the opening goal or play with a lead for once.
"Are there a lot of positive things going on with the team that's in transition from what it was last year? Really good things going on," Cooper said. "So, we've played some really good opponents and we're grinding out points, which is what you have to do in this league. So there's different guys in different roles. We've got new guys in the lineup doing some great things for us. It's going to take some time for us. The boys are gutting it out and finding a way to claw some points back, and now we've just got to start getting two at a time now, that's what we have to do."
The start to the current season was never going to go as smoothly as it did last season when the Bolts sprinted out of the gate to a 18-4-2 record in the first two months. That team was basically the same one that lifted the Stanley Cup in the Edmonton bubble a couple months earlier. There were too many important players lost this offseason. Too many new players to work into the system. Too many games played in winning back-to-back Stanley Cups to be as fresh as other teams who haven't gone on long playoff runs of late.
Plus, they're playing with a target on their backs this season, the rest of the NHL wanting to prove themselves against the two-time defending champions. Consistency has been fleeting so far for the Lightning. They're munching points, however, maybe not as many as they'd like but enough where they're giving themselves a chance for once they do start to find their game.
"I think the guys did a good job of grinding the game, and some stuff didn't go our way and we still grinded and got a point out of it," Joseph said. "At the end of the day a shootout is a shootout. I'm really happy with the way we battled."

3. ONE TOO MANY PENALTIES TO OVERCOME
Tampa Bay's penalty kill has been one of the team's strengths this season, especially considering it was a question mark coming into the season with the loss of three of their best penalty killers in Yanni Gourde, Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman.
Through the first four games, the Lightning had only given up two power-play goals.
They nearly completed another perfect night on the penalty kill against Colorado having held the Avalanche off the scoreboard on their first five power plays of the game.
The sixth, however, was too much for even a stout penalty kill to overcome.
With the game 2-2 and the Lightning building momentum off of Stamkos' tying goal earlier in the period, Colorado was awarded a sixth power play when Andrei Vasilevskiy went to poke the puck away while in his crease and ended up getting whistled for tripping an Avalanche attacker, a call Jon Cooper had a hard time understanding.
"I've never seen that, guy goes through the blue paint and the goalie's protecting against the wraparound and gets a tripping penalty," Cooper said. "But, in the end, there was a bunch more we took before that you just can't do."
MacKinnon made quick work of the gift, sniping a shot off the face-off five seconds into the power play to regain the lead for Colorado.
Tuesday against Florida, it was a lethargic 0-for-6 effort on the power play that doomed the Bolts.
In Saturday's loss, six power plays given up proved to be too many for the Lightning to overcome.
"It's such a momentum swing," Joseph said. "Penalties happen in hockey. We felt good about our game and then, boom, penalty against us. Our power play had some really good looks tonight. There's some that probably should have went in and didn't. They're momentum swings. I thought the PK did good. Tough bounce at the end to give that one up off the face-off. I thought we battled really hard. Sometimes momentum doesn't go your way because of penalties, but it's tough. You can't control that. You have to go through it. I thought the guys battled hard and tried to pick everyone up on the bench."