Lightning Look To Quickly Turn The Page After 6-4 Loss In Detroit

Despite two goals for Steven Stamkos, Lightning drop their first road game of the season to the Detroit Red Wings.

The Bolts opened their back-to-back stretch with a 6-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday night. The 6th goal came from an empty netter. 

The game was a tale of the Lightning becoming their own worst enemy.

They started off strong, controlling the first couple minutes of the game but ultimately didn't find the net. Despite taking the lead seven minutes into the first period, the Bolts couldn’t capitalize and dropped the back and forth battle.

“You never see us do this in a playoff game..what we did,” head coach Jon Cooper told reporters after the game. “And when you’re giving the opponent everything we gave them..it’s near impossible to win a hockey game.”

“Just the amount of turnovers and the odd-man rushes and all those things we gave up..but it kind of sucks that you have to lose a hockey game to sit here and say, ‘Ok, let’s get back to the things that have made us one of the best teams for the last decade.’ "

Jonas Johansson, who is currently filling in for Andrei Vasilevskiy, stopped 36 of the 41 shots he faced but his team didn’t make it easy on him. Four of the goals they allowed were a direct result of turnovers, three of them in their zone. Detroit put the pressure on the Bolts in the second period, putting up 21 shots, Johansson stopped 19 of them.

“The amount of turnovers was just shocking, and by players that have played a lot of games with this team,” Cooper said. “We'll get through that. When you look at the game, that doesn't happen to us too often, the way we gave up chances or shot ourselves in the foot or however you want to call it. We'll be better. There's no doubt."

One bright spot for the Lightning was Steven Stamkos locking in two goals and an assist. Nikita Kucherov, Victor Herman, and Stamkos connected on a passing sequence that resulted in a goal for the captain in the first period.

The Lightning will get to quickly turn the page with the second game of their back-to-back tonight in Ottawa. Puck drop is at 7pm.