‘Not there yet’: Lightning aim to bring urgency with them on the road

TAMPA — The Lightning’s past two games were far from their best, and Saturday’s shutout loss to Boston was a reminder that, despite the strides they’ve made over the past five weeks, they haven’t accomplished anything yet.

With 19 regular season games remaining, they started Monday in third place in the Atlantic Division, nine points ahead of Ottawa. The division lead was well within reach, as Tampa Bay (37-22-4) trailed Florida by five points with one game in hand.

“We’re not there yet, so we can’t pat ourselves on the shoulder and say good job,” Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. “We’re chasing, first and foremost, a playoff spot, but positions in our division are up for grabs and we want to win as many games as we can to put us in the best possible situation come postseason.

“You can feel it’s getting closer. The trade deadline is behind us. There’s no more outside noises, so just focus on what we can do in this room. This is our team, and this is the guys that are going to get it done.”

Following Monday’s practice at Amalie Arena, the Lightning flew to Carolina, where they will start a stretch of six of seven games on the road Tuesday against the Hurricanes. Despite winning three of its past four road games, Tampa Bay remains a pedestrian 14-14-2 away from Amalie Arena.

The Lightning know that if they don’t make a stronger effort than they did Saturday against a Bruins team that was in sell mode at the deadline — players and coach Jon Cooper agreed they were outworked, and they made a season-high 19 turnovers — they’ll be in for a long night against the Hurricanes.

“You do that against a team like Carolina with the speed that they have, there’s going to be a lot of play in our own end,” Hedman said. “So, it’s all about puck management. They’re a very aggressive hockey club that gets up ice and pins you with their D’s and (plays) man-on-man in the D zone. So, we’ve got to create our space and be quick in our thought process, and try and get as many pucks as we can to their net.”

Maintaining health a key

Hedman, who hasn’t played since leaving Thursday’s win over Buffalo after three shifts with a lower-body injury (he did take warmups Saturday but was a game-time scratch), was a full participant for Monday’s practice. But neither he nor Cooper would commit to Hedman being in the lineup against the Hurricanes.

“It was good to be back,” Hedman said. “Obviously, I was close last game. So, we’ll see (Tuesday).”

There was also concern Monday about top scorer Nikita Kucherov, who made an abrupt exit from practice, appearing to hold his left arm as he skated to the bench hunched over and eventually down the tunnel.

It’s just two weeks since players returned from the 4 Nations Faceoff break, but at this time of the season no one is 100% physically. Cooper has been conscientious about giving players like Kucherov, Anthony Cirelli and Andrei Vasilevskiy maintenance days. Last week, he gave all five 4 Nations participants a day off.

You want to feel as close to your best as you can approaching the playoffs, but Cooper is trying to find a balance between resting up and firing on all cylinders as his team works to lock up a postseason spot.

“It’s a hard balance, especially with the semicondensed schedule this year because of the 4 Nations tournament,” Cooper said “There’s just no breaks, and you look at your schedule, it’s just game-off-game-off-game-off. You want to try and fit in some rest for the guys, but you also have to make sure that we put ourselves in a position to get in the playoffs.

“... You just kind of have to get a good feel for your team first. And you know when guys need a break, but we don’t want to make a habit of that. We want to make sure we’ve got our game going here right through the end of the year.”

Finding roles for newcomers

Cooper said he’s slowly let the Lightning’s two trade-deadline acquisitions, Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand, get accustomed to their new surroundings. He started them together on the third line for their first two games. But by the end of Saturday’s loss, both had moved around.

The most notable switches involved Bjorkstrand, who Monday played right wing on the matchup line with Brandon Hagel and Cirelli. Bjorkstrand also was in the left circle on the top power-play unit for the end of the Boston game as well as Monday’s practice.

“There’s a lot of good players on that power play,” Bjorkstrand said. “So, it’s a great opportunity for me to try to get some chemistry with them. I think I probably have the mindset that you’ve just got to be ready at all times, because they make really, really nice plays. Just playing against them I’ve seen it first-hand, and now it’s nice to be on their side now.”

Despite ranking sixth in the league (26.1%), the Lightning power play is just 8-for-43 (18.6%) over its past 16 games. Bjorkstrand gives the unit a proven hard right-handed shot from that spot.

“He’s got a good shot, and obviously he’s got a great release,” Hedman said. “You saw that post hit against Boston. That’s the patience with the puck, and they come off the blade. So, for him, it’s all about getting used to that, too.”

Gourde found his way into the bumper spot on the second unit. He’s played there before, and in his previous stint with the Lightning he manned numerous spots on the power play. Monday, he showed his ability to battle in the corner for pucks, something the man-advantage unit needs to maintain zone time.

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