The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Buffalo Sabres in a shootout 2-1 on Saturday night but managed to clinch a playoff spot. Earlier in the day, the New York Rangers lost to the New Jersey Devils to help the Lightning secure a playoff spot.
The Lightning are still chasing the Toronto Maple Leafs for the division lead. The Lightning trail the Maple Leafs by four points for first place in the division with five games left in the season. The Lightning lead the Panthers by two points as they battle for second place.
With the playoffs starting in two weeks, it will be a great race to see who will win the division. The good news is that the Lightning will get Florida and Toronto at home during the last week of the season. If the playoffs started today, the Lightning and the Panthers would be first-round opponents.
This is the eighth consecutive season that the Bolts have made the playoffs. The Lightning have also made the playoffs 11 out of the last 12 seasons. Since 2015, the Lightning have played in 146 playoff games, winning 87 of them.
Tampa Bay played in three Stanley Cup finals, winning consecutive years against Dallas and Montreal while losing to Colorado the following season. Now that they have clinched a playoff spot, the Lightning can focus on hitting their playoff stride.
In Ottawa Thursday night, the Lightning could only manage one goal against Ottawa goaltender Linus Ullmark as they lost to the Senators 2-1. Although the Lightning outplayed the Senators for most of the game, they were a bit out of synch defensively, which contributed to the loss.
On Saturday night in Buffalo, the Bolts were severely outplayed by a Buffalo team that is out of the playoffs. The Lightning could manage only two shots on goal in the first period and were outshot 38-24 for the game. Brayden Point and Gage Concalves scored two goals for the Lightning in the shootout loss. Jonas Johansson was in goal for Tampa and is now 0-7 for his career in shootouts. Johansson played well enough to win and made some incredible saves. In his post-game press conference, Jon Cooper talked about the backup goalie:
“That’s one of the toughest jobs in sports is being the backup goaltender. When you don’t get to play a ton of games in a row and get in a rhythm, JJ has been fantastic for us. He gave us every opportunity to win that game, and it’s too bad we left that one off there for him because he played a heck of a game tonight.”
Brayden Point summed up the 3-2 loss to Buffalo: “There’s some good. I think, defensively, not quite good enough. They’re a really skilled team. They make a lot of plays, so you’ve got to give them that. But I think Johansson had to make far too many great saves just to keep us in it. And I think that’s something that we need to clean up, especially come playoff time.”
The Lightning’s power play was again non-existent, as the Lightning went 0-for-3 on the power play. The Bolts are now 0-for-10 in the power play in their last four games. The Lightning need to improve their power play with the playoffs fast approaching. They have two weeks to get into playoff form.
The Lightning wrap up the road trip Monday night against the Rangers before a four-game homestand against Toronto, Detroit, Buffalo, and Florida.
The Lightning still have a slim chance at another milestone, 50 wins, but they would need to win all six games remaining in the regular season to make that happen.