The Backcheck: Stamkos stays hot, but Bolts fall to Penguins

The Tampa Bay Lightning dropped the second half of a back-to-back set against Columbus and Pittsburgh with a 6-2 loss to the Penguins on Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena. Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point scored for the Bolts while Brian Elliott got his first start of the season and made 39 saves with some exceptional stops throughout the night.
Tampa Bay will return home ahead of the team's home opener on Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Lightning finished the road trip with a 1-2-0 record after losing to the Rangers on Tuesday and beating the Blue Jackets on Friday.

"We have lots of work to do," said Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper. "The best players on our team have been our goaltenders. I thought Moose was outstanding tonight.
"The big thing is, and it comes right down to it, if we're not going to manage the puck and we're going to turn it over, especially to teams like this, it will be a long night for you."
A bright spot for the Bolts has been Stamkos, who stayed hot on Saturday night by scoring the game-opening goal and adding an assist to extend his goal and point streak to three consecutive games with four goals and one assist through the first three Tampa Bay games this season. His four goals are the most in the NHL this season and two of them have been scored with his patented one-timer on the power play.
With his helper on Saturday night, Stamkos picked up the 492nd assist of his career and hit another milestone, passing Vincent Lecavalier to take sole possession of the second-most assists in Lightning franchise history.
After recording an assist on opening night against the Rangers, Nikita Kucherov found the scoresheet again and picked up his first multi-point game of the season with two helpers on the night. Point also scored his first goal of the season late in the third period and Victor Hedman picked up his second assist of the year.
After a pretty even start to the game that saw the first period end in a 1-1 tie, the Lightning took a step back in the second period and got outshot 17-9 while giving up one Pittsburgh goal to head into the third period down by one.
The Penguins came out with a purpose in the third period and scored back-to-back goals 1:12 apart to put Pittsburgh up 4-1 just 3:50 into the final frame. Jeff Carter added a fifth goal before Point's goal at the 14:03 mark made it 5-2, but it was too little, too late for the Lightning, who gave up an empty-net goal to Rickard Rakell to wrap up the 6-2 loss.
"We just started turning the puck over way too much," said Point. "A team like that with all that speed coming at you and all that skill, it's tough to defend when you're just giving them rushes.
"You've got to play the full game. I think it's a bit of a wake-up call for us. It's tough to win in this league and I think this road trip shows that. We've got to be better."
In total, Tampa Bay surrendered 45 shots against on Saturday night, the most the team has given up through three games this season. In the first back-to-back set of the season, Hedman didn't think the Lightning lacked the necessary energy to tie the game in the final period.
"I mean, not really," said Hedman when asked if it was difficult to generate energy in the final frame. "We had some good looks in the third, but they're a good team. They play with high pace and they got some opportunities where we had to bear down. For us, we learn from this and we move on."
The Bolts power play went one-for-four on the night and the penalty kill went two-for-four, marking the second of three games that the Lightning have given up a power play goal this season.
"We keep putting ourselves on the PK," said Hedman. "The guys did a good job with blocking shots and Moose made some big saves. Kind of a broken play on the 2-1 goal, but for us, we 've just got to make sure that we try to stay out of the box, especially against a team like this who can generate a lot of chances."
As Tampa Bay returns home for the first home game of the season, the team will look to get more depth scoring that guided the group to a 5-2 win at Columbus. Corey Perry, Ross Colton, Cal Foote and Stamkos lit the lamp for the Bolts on Friday night. Tampa Bay will need more of that depth scoring to continue being successful throughout the season.
Breaking up the top line of Stamkos-Point-Kucherov looked like a good move for the Lightning after a big win in Columbus. The split allowed for more offensive talent to be distributed throughout all four lines, but the Bolts will need more scoring throughout the lineup moving forward this season.
In the first back-to-back of the season after a turbulent training camp that included a major hurricane thrown in the middle of it, the Bolts lost steam as the game went on. Pittsburgh was playing in their second game of the regular season on Saturday and had more energy in the final period.
Now the Lightning will get two days off before the home opener against the Flyers on Tuesday. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET at AMALIE Arena.
"We've had good starts," said Hedman. "We obviously sustained that against Columbus, but against New York and Pittsburgh, for whatever reason, we couldn't really sustain that.
"Goaltending has been phenomenal through our three games and that's what we'll take with us. We've got to play to our strengths."