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

Tampa Bay never trailed Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens until the final score read 5-4 in favor of the Habs following a three-round shootout.
Nick Suzuki was the only player from either team to convert his shootout attempt to give the Canadiens their first win over the Lightning this season and end the Habs' 10-game losing skid, regular season and postseason, at AMALIE Arena.

The Lightning saw their four-game win streak stopped Saturday night but extended their point streak to five games.
"I think if we're being honest, we're lucky we got one tonight," Brayden Point said following the shootout loss.
Brian Elliott made several spectacular saves to get the Lightning that point. But even a heroic effort by Elliott couldn't negate all of the odd-man rushes the Lightning surrendered, allowing Montreal to hang around in the game and pull it out in the end.
Here's what stood out from a frustrating loss to the Atlantic Division's last place team.

1. ODD-MAN OUT
Tampa Bay played very structured defensively in its four wins leading up to Saturday's Montreal game.
Which is why it was so baffling to see so many odd-man chances given up throughout the shootout loss.
Turnovers played a big role. The Lightning gave the puck away cheaply at times, and a fast-skating team like Montreal was able get out in transition and outnumber the Bolts to generate plenty of scoring opportunities.
The Lightning were fortunate Brian Elliott was at the top of his game. Otherwise, the Canadiens could have scored a decisive victory in regulation.
"I think we were just out of structure," said Anthony Cirelli, who's shorthanded goal in the first period put the Lightning up 2-0 heading into the first intermission. "We have a certain way we want to play. Tonight, just too many odd-mans."
Montreal's tying goal to make it 3-3 late in the second period was a perfect example of Tampa Bay's carelessness with the puck Saturday. The Lightning had the puck in the offensive zone, but a drop pass to nobody right in front of the blue line and everybody on the Bolts pushing up into the zone led to a breakaway for Josh Anderson. Cal Foote tried to skate back as quick as he could to disrupt the chance, but Anderson had too much of a head start and was able to beat Elliott with his shot, tying the game for the first time since it was scoreless.
That was the most egregious of the Lightning's errors, but there were many other throughout the game that just weren't conducive to them winning.
They got punished for their errors, and rightly so.
"Egregious mental errors really hurt us tonight," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "Turnovers were inexcusable, the odd-man rushes against. I don't doubt our team's work ethic, but sometimes our mental (judgment) can be questioned and that was definitely tonight."

2. A MOOSE SIGHTING
Brian Elliott has played remarkably well as Andrei Vasilevskiy's backup this season, despite infrequent starts, sometimes lasting close to a month between appearances.
His performance Saturday was arguably his best of the season.
The Lightning led the Canadiens 2-0 after the first period but were outplayed for decent chunks of the opening stanza. The Bolts mainly had a lead because they were opportunistic when their chances did arise.
And because Elliott was near-impossible to beat.
"He was our best player tonight," Cooper said.
His best stop came with four minutes left in the first period and the Lightning leading 2-0. A cross-crease feed to Christian Dvorak gave the Montreal forward a wide-open look from the left circle. Dvorak quickly fired on net, but Elliott slid over with a sprawling two-pad stack to windmill the puck out of the air and away from goal.
"To be honest, I think Moose kept us in, especially in the first period," Brayden Point said. "We were up 2-0. I don't think we deserved to be at all."
The Lightning gave Elliott enough goal support by finding the back of the net four times. Elliott was at the top of his game in a 27-of-31 save performance. The fact the Lightning still lost shows just how leaky they were defensively.
"We scored four goals tonight," Cooper said. "Regardless of how you get them, we got four. You can't lose games when you score four. Somethings going on if you are. And, if you consider your goalie to be the best player on the ice for you, and you still lose when you score four, something went wrong in your game."

3. FATIGUE FACTORS IN
Tampa Bay concluded a stretch of five games in eight days on Saturday with a pair of back-to-backs thrown in, the schedule starting to condense over the final month of the regular season.
The Lightning held practice sessions Wednesday and Thursday between games, a rare chance to train on consecutive days at this point of the season.
Jon Cooper knew he was taking a risk practicing both days rather than giving his team a day off. But he felt there were too many areas his group needed to work on, outweighing the need for rest.
In the end, fatigue might have been a factor in Tampa Bay's 5-4 shootout loss to Montreal as the Lightning just didn't have the jump in their game they'd shown earlier in the week, and the Canadiens appeared a fresher team throughout.
Cooper said the numerous turnovers the Lightning committed were mental, potentially from spending so much time on the ice over the last few days.
"We grinded them this week," he said. "We had three games. We practiced every day. We had a chance to (work) the guys hard. We knew this one might be a little dicey, but you've got to fight through this stuff. Mentally, we had a lot of really bad mental mistakes. And it's too bad. We've got to fight through that. It's a tough league. Anybody can beat anybody. We can't make those mental mistakes we made tonight."
There are games throughout an 82-game regular season schedule that are going to be tough to win because of where they fall on the calendar.
That appeared to be the case with Saturday's contest against the Canadiens.
Hopefully, with a day off Sunday, the Lightning can get their legs back under them and ready themselves for an important Atlantic Division tilt against Toronto on Monday, a team they're tied with in the standings.
The schedule doesn't let up the rest of the way either as the Lightning don't have two days between games for another two weeks, and that's the last two-day break of the regular season.