Inconsistent Lightning set to face improving Avalanche

On Saturday, the Tampa Bay Lightning faced a club they met in a recent Stanley Cup Final when they played against the Dallas Stars.

They get a chance to do so again to start Thanksgiving week when the Lightning play host the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night.

While Tampa Bay did get past the Stars to win the title in 2020, coach Jon Cooper's team was unable to fight through injuries in the 2022 Final that slipped away to the Avalanche in six games. Offensive spark plug Brayden Point missed most all of that postseason.

The 13th-year Lightning coach is combatting new enemies these days.

"One team tried to make six passes and put the puck in the net and turned it over, and the other team made two passes and threw it in the net," Cooper said after Saturday's 4-2 home loss, while comparing his team to the Stars. "One team waited for the other team to make a mistake, they did, and that team capitalized on it. That was it.

"We blinked first and we lost."

The Lightning's Anthony Cirelli scored twice and extended his goal streak to five games, but Dallas forward Matt Duchene broke a 2-2 tie in the third period and Roope Hintz scored 58 seconds later to sink the Lightning and drop them to 3-4-2 in November.

Cooper's frustrations in his group's pass-first play have been noted, but they seemed to reach a boiling point after a second straight setback.

"It's almost like the goals don't count unless they make the highlight reel," Cooper said. "We haven't quite figured out that if the puck just crosses the goal line in between the pipes, it counts. It doesn't have to be an all-world play."

As they get healthier, the Avalanche demonstrated Saturday against the defending Stanley Cup champions that they have no problem scoring.

Mikko Rantanen notched a goal and three assists as Colorado powered past the Florida Panthers in a 7-4 victory.

Wingers Valeri Nichushkin (suspension) and Jonathan Drouin (upper-body injury) were playing their fourth games since returning from season-long absences and had their best showings so far.

A power forward, Nichushkin notched a goal and two assists, while the slick Drouin scored twice, the first tallies for each this season.

Drouin was injured six weeks ago on opening night while playing left wing on the top line against the Vegas Golden Knights and missed 16 games.

He said he and his teammates followed the lead of the champion Panthers.

"I thought we played well after giving up that first goal," Drouin said. "We tried to play a little how they do: Put the puck in deep, try to make them come 200 feet to our net. I don't think we made many mistakes in that game."

The Avalanche are on a three-game winning streak and are 7-3-0 this month. That surge has them in fourth place in the Central Division behind the first-place Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild and Stars, respectively.

Colorado turned defense into offense in the win.

"We shut down the rush attack and that is important to get above them because they are a dangerous rush team," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "They push north hard. For most of the game, we did a real good job of that. Our defensive play led to good offense."