Burns: Three Things we learned from a shorthanded win in L.A.

Sometimes over the course of an 82-game regular season, a team needs a challenge to get its players' attention and keep them locked in on the task at hand.
The Tampa Bay Lightning certainly experienced a challenge unlike any other when they took on the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday.

A slew of injuries and salary cap constraints forced the Lightning to play with only four defensemen against the Kings. But they didn't use that as an excuse.
Instead, they dug deep within themselves, played a structured game, helped out their defensemen whenever possible and came away with as impressive a victory as they'll have all season, defeating the Kings 6-4 to start a three-game road trip through California.
"I'm just really proud of the guys," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "We weren't going to use any excuses to let two points slip through our fingers just because we had four D, and they found a way."
Tampa Bay has now won four games in a row and six of its last seven.
The Lightning collected their 10th-straight victory over the Kings, tied for their longest-active win streak against one team (also: 10-straight wins over Philadelphia).
The Bolts improved to 5-0-0 versus Pacific Division teams this season and have won six in a row over the Pacific going back to 2019-20.
Tuesday against the Kings, the Lightning took control in the third period, Victor Hedman scoring his second goal of the game to break a 3-all tie. Mathieu Joseph netted what would prove to be the game-winning goal at 15:20 of the third period, and Steven Stamkos added an empty-net marker in the final minutes to secure the win and the two points.
The Bolts played their 41st game of the regular season on Tuesday. At the midpoint of their season, they find themselves all alone atop the NHL standings on points.
Here's how they were able to overcome the odds in Los Angeles to get there.

1. PLAYING SHORTHANDED
The Lightning found themselves in an odd situation Tuesday night in Los Angeles when they only had 16 skaters available to them and four defensemen due to injuries and their salary cap situation.
Ondrej Palat, Erik Cernak and Zach Bogosian were all unavailable because of lower-body injuries. Jan Rutta was also scratched, presumably because he too was injured.
Because none of the injuries were COVID related, the Lightning weren't allowed to use a player from the taxi squad like Andrej Sustr.
So the Lightning went into the Los Angeles game shorthanded and down two defensemen. They knew after the morning skate that might be the situation and were sure of it by the time they got to the rink in the afternoon for the game.
"Obviously, a different situation, but you can look at it two ways," Victor Hedman said. "You can feel sorry for yourself. Or you can look at it as an opportunity. That's how we approached it today. We had a lot of good help from our forwards. We just tried to keep things as simple as possible and a big two points for us."
Cooper said Lightning assistant coach Rob Zettler, who runs the defense, had the easiest job of anybody on the night because he only had two pairs to throw out on the ice. Hedman said the only thing that changed for him was Lightning assistant athletic trainer Mikey Poirier had to fill up his water bottle a little more.
Beyond that, it was business as usual for the Lightning, other than the four available defensemen - Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, Mikhail Sergachev and Cal Foote - logging more minutes than they would in a typical game.
"It's a situation you're not really used to," McDonagh said. "Was a first time for me. You need a total team effort, guys playing well with the puck and without it. Obviously, we don't want to get stuck in our own end. If we manage the game, limit our turnovers, that gives us a good chance to play quick and not get stuck out there. You just need to pick each other up and stick to our structure and play as a unit of five."
There was a thought of having one or two forwards take shifts on defense, but Hedman quickly nixed that idea.
"Forwards wanted to play D, but we told them to stay up front and let us do the work back there," he said.
The Lightning should be able to make an emergency recall prior to their game Friday in Anaheim should the three defensemen remain sidelined. Bogosian definitely will as the team announced Monday he would miss two to three weeks. Cernak is close to a return. Rutta's status is unknown.
For one night, anyway, the Lightning were forced to play shorthanded and met the challenge head on.

2. AN EXCITED VICTOR HEDMAN
Victor Hedman scored the opening goal and the final go-ahead goal, plus he tacked on an assist for a three-point night in Los Angeles, all while logging 32:37 time on ice, his career high for a regular season game.
The Swedish defenseman admitted he couldn't sleep during his customary afternoon nap time he was so excited about the challenge ahead of him that night.
"You don't want to have guys being hurt and not being able to play, but we've never seen this before, never been a part of it," he said. "It was something new, so you get pretty excited about it. You know you're going to be out there every other shift. It's a challenge in itself. In an 82-game season, you need those challenges. For us, it was something different and something exciting. We don't want to do this on a regular basis, but for one game it was kind of fun to measure yourself and see what you can do with only four guys. Very happy with the outcome and looking forward to getting guys back the next game."
McDonagh admitted he didn't quite share Hedman's enthusiasm for the situation.
"He was pretty excited to know it was just four tonight. Me on the other hand, I was a little nervous," McDonagh said. "He just thrives when he's asked to do more and wants to do that for the team. Just a phenomenal performance tonight to lead the way."
Jon Cooper was asked if Hedman made a statement on Tuesday that he's the best defenseman in the NHL with the way he took the game over despite playing over seven minutes more than his average ice time.
The Lightning head coach responded Hedman should be on everybody's Norris Trophy ballet. Hedman pulled in front of Roman Josi and now has three more points than any other NHL defensemen for scoring this season. He notched his ninth career multi-goal game, pulling ahead of Dan Boyle for the most multi-goal games for a defenseman in Lightning history.
"Tonight was game 41, it was the half point of our season, and when you play 82 games, things can get stale at times," Cooper said. "But it's situations like this sometimes that can snap guys into place. It's something new. It's clearly not ideal. But before the game, (Heddy) was really excited for this challenge. There's guys that rise to the challenge, and there's guys that don't. I've been here a long time now with him, and whether it was a game like tonight or whether it was the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoff, he just finds a way to rise to the occasion."

3. HEDMAN'S SUPPORTING CAST
It was just Victor Hedman that rose to the occasion on the back end, however.
All four healthy Lightning defensemen had a major impact in the win over the Kings.
Ryan McDonagh played nearly 30 minutes and made a brilliant pass to a wide-open Mathieu Joseph below the right circle for Joseph to one-time into the net from a sharp angle for the game-winning goal. McDonagh finished plus-three for the contest.
Mikhail Sergachev logged over 27-and-a-half minutes of ice time and also helped to set up Joseph's goal by providing the second assist.
And Cal Foote played over 25 minutes for the first time in his career. He finished with 25:19 time on ice. His previous high was 23:52 last season versus Dallas.
"It was impressive by them all," Cooper said. "I know Heddy was the minute eater, but I don't think Cal Foote's played that many minutes in the NHL before. The performance of Sergy and Mac, that was pretty impressive."
Cooper said it was critical that his team not take penalties with only four guys to rotate through on the back end on the penalty kill. The Lightning were shorthanded three times, and nearly got out of each of those situations unscathed if not for Arthur Kaliyev's tying goal with 3:54 remaining in the second period and six seconds left on the Kings' power play.
Cooper said there were constant reminders in the second period to get the puck deep so the Lightning could change defensemen while the puck was buried in the offensive zone.
"It was pivotal for us in the second period to make sure we were getting pucks deep so we could get our D off because that's always a tough change," he said. "But that's what was constantly talked about during the game was getting the puck deep and we couldn't make that extra play. Sometimes we might want to try it, but I thought that was big for us."
The Lightning survived a back-and-forth second period facing the long change tied 3-3 heading into the third. That gave the team confidence they could prevail in the final 20 minutes when they'd have an easier time rotating in defensemen.
"You can look at the bounces that went against us and guys just kept fighting, battling, showing a lot of emotion, sticking up for one another, trying to execute on special team," McDonagh said. "It was all areas of the game tonight. We talk about after two periods being tied and going into the third and played a really good period there and controlled the play and executed and closed them out."