The Backcheck: Special teams struggles continue

"They scored more goals than us," said Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "Their special teams was the difference. That was it."
After a pretty dominant first period for the Bolts ended in a 1-1 tie, the Edmonton Oilers scored two power play goals in the second period and skated to a 3-2 victory over the Bolts at AMALIE Arena Tuesday night.

The Bolts opened Tuesday night's game firing on all cylinders and got out to an 8-0 shot advantage through the first seven minutes of the game. After Edmonton goaltender Jack Campbell covered a shot from Mikhail Sergachev, Oilers defenseman Tyson Barrie ripped the helmet off Corey Perry and gave Tampa Bay the first power play of the game.
From that moment on, it was a night to forget for the Lightning's special teams.
Nearly one minute into the man advantage, the Bolts had failed to record a shot on goal when Warren Foegele capitalized on some poor puck management and fired a wrist shot just inside the post on Andrei Vasilevskiy's blocker side to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead. It marked the third shorthanded goal that the Lightning have given up in the past four contests.
"That's a whole different issue, giving up the shorthanded goals the way we've been doing it," said Cooper.

Giving up a shorthanded goal can be deflating, but Tampa Bay answered right away with the top line of Brandon Hagel, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov striking yet again.
Following an Edmonton turnover in the neutral zone, Point collected the puck and entered the offensive zone before leaving a drop pass near the center point for Kucherov. Fooling the defenders with a little bit of a shot fake, Kucherov then slid the puck over to Hagel at the right circle before he fired a one-timer past Campbell to tie the game at one just 2:08 after the game-opening goal.
With his assist, Kucherov extended his point streak to 11 games and tied New Jersey's Jesper Bratt for the longest point streak in the NHL this season. The winger has racked up 20 points (6G, 14A) over that 11-game span.
The top line has been lights out for the Lightning as of late, accounting for seven of Tampa Bay's 14 goals over the past four games.
Over the past five contests, the trio has combined for 26 points with eight goals and 18 assists.
Along with Kucherov's 11-game point streak, Point extended his point streak to five games with nine points (2G, 7A) during that span and Hagel pushed his point streak to three games with five points (2G, 3A) over those three contests.
Entering the second period tied at one, the Bolts had managed to stay out of the penalty box, something Cooper alluded to prior to the game on Tuesday morning.
"The big thing, for me, is you've got to keep them off the power play," Cooper said. "Even if you're shutting somebody down, if you afford them that, power plays can usually get guys going and get their vibe going. That's a big thing for us, to stay out of the box."
In the end, penalties would be one of the biggest reasons for the loss to Edmonton. The Lightning took back-to-back penalties to open the second period and the Oilers were able to capitalize on both power plays to take a 3-1 lead.
"They take advantage of their special teams, get the lead, and then they hold on," Cooper explained post-game. "It's tough to come back in this league. It doesn't matter. It's much easier to play with the lead than without it. And again, it comes down to we're just giving up one too many goals.
"I've said this now, that number three, it's a goal too many. You're not going to win them all. You're not going to score four every night. Tonight, special teams were clearly not in our favor."
In between Edmonton's second and third goals, a scary moment occurred when Evander Kane went down to the ice before Pat Maroon's skate blade made direct contact with the wrist of Kane. A large amount of blood immediately spilled onto the ice as Kane skated off quickly, screaming in agony.
Following the game, it was announced that Kane was in stable condition and was set to have surgery at a local hospital for his wrist injury.
With a stretcher ran onto the ice just in case and the ice crew scraping up dried blood, the energy in the building completely died off with everyone hoping Kane would be OK.
"Obviously, we were all thinking about him at that time, but unfortunately, we still have to drop the puck and kind of figure out what happened after the game," Maroon said. "That's a scary situation. I hope he's OK.
"When you look down and you see that much blood, you know there's something wrong. That's obviously not normal. Obviously, the boys are really worried about him, so we're all thinking about Evander.
"Hopefully he's OK and it's nothing too serious. It's a scary situation and hopefully he's good right now. You don't see that much blood without some being serious there, so obviously, Evander, we're thinking of you."

With a somber mood taking over the building, Edmonton scored their third goal on the power play shortly after and would hold the lead for the remainder of the game.
"I think it's a challenge for both teams," said Cooper when asked about jumping back into a game following such a devastating injury. "Once [we got] a couple shifts in, I think guys got back into the game, but there was definitely a little lull after that."
Tampa Bay did come out hot in the third period with Nick Perbix finding Alex Killorn, who redirected a shot to bring the Bolts within one just 49 seconds into the final frame. But the Lightning just couldn't overcome the poor special teams and second period performance.
"They beat us in the special teams battle, big time," said Killorn. "Letting up the shorthanded goal and then letting two goals in shorthanded for us, not good enough.
"I thought we had really good control of the game in the first period. Even in the third, I thought we played well. Just the second period killed us and that was the decision maker in this one."
Similar to the Ottawa game earlier this month, Tampa Bay simply didn't have it on special teams on Tuesday. Five-on-five, they performed well throughout most of the game.
There's hope the Bolts can build on some of the good things they did on Tuesday, but special teams will surely be a focal point with two days of practice coming up before a Friday night game vs. the Capitals in Washington, D.C.
"We have a couple days of practice here, so we can work on it," said Cooper. "It's probably shame on us because they're coming off a late night back-to-back. Tired team.
"Then, they unfortunately lose a forward for them, so when they dress 11 and seven, now they're down to 10 and seven. Good for them."