Krenn: Three Things we learned from a loss to Detroit

After a dominant first period that saw the Tampa Bay Lightning outshoot the Detroit Red Wings 15-5, the Bolts took their foot off the gas pedal before giving up three straight goals in the second period in a 4-3 loss on Tuesday night at AMALIE Arena. Coming into tonight's contest, Tampa Bay had defeated Detroit in all three previous matchups this season.

The Lightning made a strong push to tie the game in the final two minutes with Andrei Vasilevskiy pulled for a sixth attacker, but couldn't find the back of the net and lost for the first time since a 1-0 loss to the Dallas Stars last Tuesday.
Ross Colton opened the scoring for Tampa Bay at the 3:58 mark of the first period to give the Bolts a 1-0 lead, but Detroit immediately answered just 22 seconds later with Oskar Sundqvist scoring his seventh goal of the season. The Red Wings would rattle off three consecutive goals in a span of 3:57 to take a 3-1 lead.
The Lightning managed to push back with Nikita Kucherov scoring a power-play goal at the 9:47 mark of the second period and Colton tying the game just 43 seconds into the third, but Jakub Vrana capitalized on a breakaway with 14:51 remaining with what would go down as the game-winning goal for Detroit.
It was a wake-up call kind of loss for the Bolts, who were trending upward with two consecutive wins, but have now given up 11 goals in their last three games. Lightning head coach Jon Cooper has consistently placed a priority on defending first in order to generate offense and that message will certainly be amplified with just six games remaining before the postseason begins.
The Lightning will hope to get their mistakes corrected quickly as they look ahead to three straight games against teams that are currently holding a spot in the playoffs. After a disappointing loss like tonight, Tampa Bay will have to flip the page and look to get things back on track on Thursday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Here's what we learned from a disappointing loss to Detroit.

1. DEFENSE FIRST
As previously mentioned, Cooper has always prioritized defending your own end before worrying about generating offense. With breakaways, odd-man rushes, and turnovers, the Lightning simply did not do that in tonight's loss.
"It's the story that's stood the test of time for not winning.," said Cooper. "They didn't stick with the process. It's a perfect example of it. They had the puck the whole first period, it didn't go in for them. But there's no reason to change anything that went on and we did.
"We pressed and it's shades of times when things didn't go so well for us, when you're continuing to press for offense."
There's nothing more frustrating than a loss that feels like the team beat themselves. After a completely dominant first period, the Lightning just didn't have the same jump during that tough stretch of the second frame.
"It's one of those games that we clearly beat ourselves and it's becoming probably a little bit too much of our story in a game that I thought, after the first period, we had full control of and we weren't satisfied and sticking with it," Cooper added. "Then you saw what happened.
"It was just odd-mans, breakaways, turnovers, and it's perplexing why some of these players that have been with us for a while, especially in game 76, are continuing to do this. It's too bad."
One thing that makes Tampa Bay such a strong team in the NHL is the leadership in the locker room. There are guys like Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Pat Maroon, Corey Perry, and Ryan McDonagh. The leadership group for the Lightning will be important down the stretch as the team tries to fully hit their stride heading into the playoffs.
McDonagh's been around long enough to know that if you do not defend the right way, you will not go far in the playoffs. He echoed some of the sentiments that Cooper offered after the defeat.
"We just kind of shoot ourselves in the foot with turnovers, forcing plays, and trying to keep things alive," McDonagh said. "Giving up odd-mans and breakaways is never going to give you a good chance to win, so it's unfortunate we leave our goalies out to dry there on many occasions.
"It's on us, our group, and understanding what our recipe is for success and what's going to give us a chance to win here."

2. THE CLOCK IS TICKING
The Lightning know what it takes to win. They have won two straight Stanley Cups and a ton of games along the way. Now it is up to this group to start playing that same way before time runs out.
"You can't give up these chances," Cooper said. "If you want to go find the playoffs or you want to do anything, you have to play defense.
"You have to stick your ego aside and not worry about how many points you're going to get or how much ice time you're going to get. You've got to worry about keeping the puck out of the net and everything positive comes from that. We have not learned it on a consistent basis yet."
Every season comes with adversity at one point or another. At the end of the day, the Lightning have once again hit the 100-point mark and, overall, have had a great season to this point. However, it is all about the timing.
After tonight's loss, Tampa Bay slipped to 4-4-2 in the month of April after going 8-7-0 in March. Prior to that, the Bolts had months of 5-1-0 (February), 8-3-1 (January), 9-2-1 (December), 8-2-3 (November), and 4-3-1 (October).
There is something to be said for hitting your stride at the right time and Tampa Bay has six more regular season games to find that stride. With that, there is also something to be said for facing adversity. Every Lightning fan remembers the 62-win season, when it felt like there was never much adversity at all during the regular season. Then, the playoffs rolled around and the season was over in the blink of an eye for the Bolts.
"Maybe it's good to get the adversity out of the way before the playoffs start," Colton said on Monday. "[We need to] kind of find our game here in these last seven or eight left so we can get some momentum going in the playoffs. I think that would be huge."
After a loss like tonight, it can feel like adversity is staring the Lightning right in the face. How will Tampa Bay respond over these next three games against some very strong teams? What will it take to get the team to where they want to be at the end of April?
"Being consistent, having everyone on board," said Stamkos. "I mean, if you don't have everyone on board, then it's tough to play. When we have good stretches and you roll the lines, you roll the D, you have trust in your system and you're playing well, which we've seen in spurts.
"We just haven't put it together for a stretch here, so we've got five, six games left to get some consistency.
"We're going to play, obviously, a very good team next game and didn't have our best showing last time, so we'll be able to have a better game."
The Lightning know what they need to do, now they need to go out and hit that stride before it becomes too late.

3. LEGENDARY BOLTS
While the loss was a tough one to swallow, there were a couple positives that came out of Tuesday night from two players who will likely have their numbers hanging in the rafters of AMALIE Arena one day.
With three assists on the night, Stamkos hit 953 career points, tying him with Martin St. Louis for the most points all-time in Lightning franchise history. St. Louis racked up all those points in 972 games, while Stamkos hit the mark in just 916 contests.
Despite the loss, it was a special night for Stamkos, who spent many years of his career playing on a line alongside St. Louis. The two were a dynamic duo for the Lightning, combining for so many big goals over the course of nearly six full seasons.
During the 2011-12 season, Stamkos became just the 20th player in NHL history to score 60 goals in one season. Who had the primary assist when he lit the lamp for the 60th time that season? St. Louis.
The two made countless memories together as teammates and friends, both on and off the ice.
"[I] definitely have Marty on my mind tonight," said Stamkos. "He means a lot, still means a lot, to me and what I've become as a person and as a player and just the role model that he's been to me. To have your name right up there with the great Marty St. Louis is pretty humbling, pretty surreal.
"When you think back and remember all the amazing times that we had together on the ice and the amazing career that Marty had and what he means to this community, it would be nice to tie that in a win, but it was kind of a cool moment.
"For me anyways, to just have that kind of rush of everything that Marty has meant to me and to be tied with him in in the record books is, like I said, it's just pretty surreal."
Along with Stamkos, it has been a record-setting year for Hedman, who set a new career high and franchise record for points in a single season by a defenseman. With his assist on Kucherov's power-play goal, Hedman picked up his 73rd point of the season, passing his previous high of 72 points set during the 2016-17 season.
Hedman remains the only defenseman in Tampa Bay history to record 70 points in the season and now he has done it twice. In terms of career points by a defenseman, Hedman's lead is growing by the day.
The Ornskoldsvik, Sweden native has now recorded 591 career points with Tampa Bay, scoring 133 goals and adding 458 assists. Hedman's 591 points are the most all-time by a Lightning defenseman, with Dan Boyle sitting in second place at 253 points. It's been one heck of a ride for number 77, who leads all Tampa Bay defensemen all-time in games played (892), goals (133), assists (458), game-winning goals (25), power-play points (205), and plus-minus (+143).
Both Stamkos and Hedman were born in 1990. Stamkos had his 32nd birthday in February and Hedman will have his in December. Both of them are at the top of the Lightning record books for their respective positions and both have plenty of gas left in the tank to keep those numbers growing. Tampa Bay fans are witnessing greatness in front of their own eyes with two of the greatest players to ever wear the Lightning sweater playing some of the best hockey of their careers.