Snow Fall: Lightning Can't Get Anything Going in 4-1 Loss to Colorado

By Michael Wax

Despite 38 shots on net, the Lightning weren't able to best the Avalanche in the second game of their three-game road trip, falling 4-1. Here's how they stacked up:

Hagel-Point-Kucherov

Stamkos-Cirelli-Eyssimont

Jeannot-Paul-Motte

Koepke-Glendening-Watson

Hedman-Perbix

Sergachev-Cernak

de Haan-Raddysh

Vasilevskiy

Here are the three biggest takeaways:

Opener

The importance of the game-opening goal is something that is stressed time and time again in hockey. You hear it from coaches, you see it all over broadcasts, and fans are well aware that a good start to a game in a game-opening goal for their team will most likely lead to a win. The Lightning, meanwhile, are in a very difficult stretch, where it seems impossible that they'll get the game-opening goal.

The Lightning have given up the game-opening goal in seven of their past eight games, Tanner Jeannot's game-opening goal against the Boston Bruins on November 13 being the lone outlier. This time was the result of bad luck, but also a really tough break. After Colorado got the puck out of their own zone, Victor Hedman fell down trying to get the puck which led to a two-on-one for Colorado . Ryan Johansen had more than enough time with the puck, with Nick Perbix covering up the pass across, and shot the puck between Andrei Vasilevskiy's right arm and right pad.

That's a shot Vasilevskiy normally saves, that's a play that Hedman normally makes with no issues. But the winning habits of the Lightning are not with they used to be early in games.

Cole Train

After a tough beginning to his NHL journey, last season, Cole Koepke has been making the most of his opportunities this season in limited playing time. Koepke came into this game with two assists in his four games, and the 25-year-old has been driving play more often on that fourth line with Luke Glendenning and Austin Watson. In this one, he got the opportunity to showcase his offensive skills in a variety of different scenarios.

Throughout the game, he was paired with a few different lines, most notably with Nick Paul, and occasionally with Brayden Point. While the line blender may have been out for the majority of that game, Koepke showed that he belonged and put together a great game, generating offense of chances for himself and his linemates.

The big separator from the lightning teams that made it to three straight Stanley Cup Finals and won back-to-back championships, and the team that lost in the first round last year, was depth scoring. If the Lightning can get players like Koepke rolling on a consistent basis, similarly to how current Avs forward Ross Colton was playing in the 2021 season for Tampa, the Bolts could be in a lot better shape than we expect.

Crucial Coyotes

One of the most crucial Jon Cooper points over the last ten-plus years has been to get more points than games played on your road trips. With a big win in Carolina, the Lightning are still in position to do that even with this loss. But, with the quietly competitive Coyotes on deck tonight (as of the writing of this), the Lightning have a tough test in front of them. Coach Cooper didn't seem too confident either postgame:

It was weird. we didn't have it tonight," Cooper said. "That rarely happens... Tomorrow's a big one for us here to see if we can regroup here. Because you're in the middle of a three-game road trip, and we've got to come away with more points than games played."

Since 2020, the Lightning are 4-1-1 against Arizona with a 21-14 goal advantage. However, the Bolts lost 1-0 in a shootout to Conner Ingram in their last meeting last year, and they'll probably be facing him again tomorrow. It's early in the season, but it's safe to say this is a big game already.

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