"There are tough losses and there are bad losses. After experiencing two in a row in the former manner, the Lightning suffered one of the latter Saturday. Coming off a pair of hard-luck, one-goal losses on the road, Tampa Bay returned home hoping to turn its fortunes around. Instead, the Lightning came out sluggish and never fully recovered in a 4-2 loss to Montreal in front of a pro-Canadiens announced crowd of 20,274 at the St. Pete Times Forum. Montreal scored twice in the opening period and never looked back. Max Pacioretty scored twice for Montreal, while Carey Price stopped 43 shots as the Canadiens handed the Lightning their third consecutive loss, the first time Tampa Bay has lost three in a row since Nov. 11-14. The latest three-game setback has the Lightning staring down the possibility of looking up at the Washington Capitals for the division lead when they come to town for Monday's final showdown between the teams this season. "The urgency levels for the teams chasing at this time of year is much greater than the teams in front,'' Lightning coach Guy Boucher said. "We played really well in Boston (Thursday), gave everything we got, same thing in New Jersey (Wednesday), we come home for that first period, and I was very surprised (at Saturday's start). Our urgency level was extremely low, and theirs was very high.'' That recent urgency level is reflected in Tampa Bay's inability to score goals. In the past five games, the Lightning have scored a total of eight goals and no more than two in any of those games while posting a 2-3 record. The power play, although the Lightning scored one with the man advantage on Saturday, has fizzled and is more of a hindrance lately as opposed to a force. Including a span of 91 seconds of a two-man advantage against Montreal, Tampa Bay has failed to generate any offensive chances, let alone goals, despite holding a 5-on-3 skater advantage of greater than a minute-and-a-half in the past two games. It all comes around to finding the right kind of desperation at a time of the season when it should be a given and not a button that needs to be pushed." Read more: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2011/ma...ghtning-third-straight-loss/sports-lightning/
