The Backcheck: Lightning drop road trip finale in Vegas

After a four-game road trip through Dallas, Denver, Tempe and Vegas, the Tampa Bay Lightning are heading home with five of a possible eight points. But after watching his team drop the final contest of the trip, 5-4, to the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena, Bolts head coach Jon Cooper felt they should've been coming back to Tampa with more than just the five points.

"This was a night we could've got points and we didn't," said Cooper.
On a late night for Lightning fans back home, the puck dropped at 10:37 p.m. ET, but there was plenty of excitement to keep everyone wide awake in the opening 20 minutes.
After zero goals were scored over 65 minutes of play Wednesday night against the Coyotes, Tampa Bay's first period on Saturday saw the two teams combine for six goals over the course of 11:36, including three in just 47 seconds.
"I don't even know how to describe that first period," Cooper said. "There was a lot to it. Really uncharacteristic for us to give up the amount of goals we gave up, considering how well we played.
"It just seemed like every time they went down the ice, it ended up in our net in some weird way. Awkward penalties. But, regardless, you can't give up four."

The Bolts opened the scoring at the 6:10 mark of the first when Vlad Namestnikov redirected a pass from Corey Perry over the glove of Adin Hill for his sixth goal of the season. But Vegas answered immediately with Brett Howden scoring a mere seven seconds after Namestnikov's game-opening goal to make it a 1-1 game.
After Nicolas Roy was whistled for hooking 28 seconds later, the Lightning quickly regained the lead with Steven Stamkos firing a bullet past Hill with his patented one-timer from the left circle, served up on a platter by Victor Hedman, as Bolts fans have seen time and time again over the years.
But again, the lead didn't last long for Tampa Bay, with Jonathan Marchessault tying the game at two just 1:20 later. Shea Theodore gave Vegas their first lead of the game at the 14:20 mark of the first before Marchessault scored his second goal of the period 3:26 later to make it a 4-2 game. The four goals against tied the Lightning season-high for goals allowed in a single period.
"It was just a weird period," said Cooper. "We left there, and we felt like we were the team that should've had the four."
During the second period, the Bolts started to regain control of the game, maintaining extended offensive zone time and getting some good looks at goal. Scoring slowed down in the second, but Perry was able to pull Tampa Bay back within one after a nice keep from Hedman and a shot from the former Hart Trophy winner that went off the glove of Hill and into the net.
Going into the third trailing by one, the Lightning were only able to generate five shots on goal in the final frame. Roy found the empty net with 1:09 remaining before Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored with 10.9 seconds remaining by redirecting a point shot from Mikhail Sergachev. It was just too little, too late.
"The frustrating part for me was, after two periods, you look up at the scoreboard and you're down a goal, but I thought we controlled the game and everything that was going on," Cooper said. "My disappointment is in a game we felt we were controlling, we didn't push the way we should've in the third.
"Regardless of whether we're on a long road trip or not, there's one period to play and we're headed home.

"I just didn't like the way they turned out - obviously the score, but we didn't push the way we normally do. That's the disappointing part."
Along with the lack of a strong push in the third period, Cooper felt the execution wasn't where it needed to be for Tampa Bay on Saturday night.
"It was an unfortunate first and a disappointing third," Cooper said. "Lack of execution on our part. There were over 40 shot attempts and 22 of them missed the net. That's execution.
"The boys [have] got to be better than that, so a little disappointing how it turned out."
From here, the Bolts will return to Tampa for a quick, two-game home stand against the Anaheim Ducks and Buffalo Sabres. The Lightning will battle the Ducks Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET.
With 27 games remaining in the regular season, Tampa Bay sits in third place in the Atlantic Division with 73 points through 55 games. Their .664 points percentage is good for sixth in the NHL.