The Backcheck: Late push not enough to rally vs. Wings

Following a 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night, the mood throughout the Tampa Bay Lightning locker room was one of disappointment, primarily in the first period.
"Not ready to play," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "It was clear. It was evident."

Tampa Bay finished the first period with 11 giveaways. For perspective, the Bolts have finished 14 of 25 games with less than 11 giveaways this season. Execution and energy just seemed off in the opening 20 minutes of Tuesday's game with turnovers plaguing the Lightning throughout the period.
"It was no good," said Tampa Bay forward Brayden Point. "The turnovers, the lack of urgency - right down the lineup. I thought the Cirelli line had a good first. Other than that, it was tough."
Despite that lack of urgency in the first period, the Bolts and Wings went into the first intermission with the score tied at zero. Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, that score didn't hold for long with Michael Rasmussen giving Detroit a 1-0 lead 1:54 into the second period.
It was the lone goal of the middle frame, with the Lightning recording just five shots on goal in the second.

"It was really disappointing," said Cooper. "I thought the boys were ready, but it was clearly a lot of bad habits that we've had as a team at times during the year came flooding out.
"Not only the first, a lot of the second too. We got better in the second, but it was tough to watch. You're not going to win NHL games doing what we did."
After Jonatan Berggren gave the Red Wings a 2-0 lead at the 5:59 mark of the third period, Tampa Bay turned up the intensity. The Bolts finished the third period with 30 shots on goal, the most they've ever recorded in a single period on home ice in franchise history.
"I thought we were good in the third," said Point. "We had a lot of chances, a lot of puck possession. We started shooting the puck more and kind of creating those shot scramble situations where we were just kind of crashing the net and throwing pucks there. I think that's how we got the majority of our chances."
With Andrei Vasilevskiy pulled for an extra attacker, the Lightning got on the board with 5:08 left in the third off the stick of Steven Stamkos. Playing pitch and catch with Victor Hedman, Stamkos ripped his patented one-timer past Ville Husso to make it a one-goal game.
Stamkos is now up to 14 goals on the season and 495 on his career. Additionally, he's recorded points in 11 consecutive games for the Bolts, tying the second-longest point streak of his illustrious career.
The 11-game point streak is also tied with Nikita Kucherov for the longest among Lightning skaters this season and tied for the fourth-longest among all NHL skaters. He's picked up 17 points over the 11-game span with seven goals and 10 assists.
As the Bolts were continuing to push for the tying goal with under five minutes remaining, Adam Erne sent the puck all the way down the ice from inside the Detroit zone and found the empty net to give the Red Wings a 3-1 lead with 3:38 left in the third.
But even down by two with minimal time left in regulation, the Lightning continued to push and got back within one at the 17:34 mark of the third. After Kucherov sent a pass to Alex Killorn near the goal line, Killorn quickly one-touched the puck to Point, who was able to sneak a backhander past Husso to make it a 3-2 game.

The assist for Killorn marked the 244th of his career, tying him with Vinny Prospal for the eighth-most assists in Lightning franchise history. It was also the 423rd point of Killorn's career, tying him with Ondrej Palat for the seventh-most points in franchise history.
But that would be Tampa Bay's final goal of the game before David Perron scored another empty-net goal for Detroit with 24.8 seconds left in regulation to lock down a win for the Wings.
"We clearly pushed, and we owned the period," said Cooper. "We still lost the period five-on-five, 1-0. That's going to happen. You've just got to keep pushing, pushing, pushing.
"We ended up getting a couple back. It was probably a little unfortunate, that first empty netter they scored was from distance, but they gave it a shot and it paid off for them.
"But the urgency we showed in the third, had we showed that for 60 minutes, maybe this outcome's a little different."
Clearly disappointed with the result of Tuesday's game, the Bolts will get a chance to get back in the win column on Thursday with a game against the Nashville Predators. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET.