TAMPA — Vegas has left the building.
Weren't the Lightning just arranging place settings for next weekend's NHL All-Star Game party?
With that in mind, I headed to the home dressing room at Amalie Arena late Thursday night after the Lightning was manhandled 4-1 by the Vegas Golden Knights. If you could leave scorched earth on ice, that was Thursday.
Still, I thought: No gloom, no doom. Just a glitch. So it was the first game without Victor Hedman and it was a disaster. Remember the first half, remember the best team in hockey?
Buck up, boys.
Oh, boys …
"We can't just go out there and expect to win," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. "There's no sugar-coating it."
Huh?
Steven Stamkos was a minus-3, as was fellow All-Star Nikita Kucherov. #TBLightning #GoldenKnights @TB_Times @TBTimes_JSmith https://t.co/s5SKjF5jyo
— TampaBayTimesSports (@TBTimes_Sports) January 19, 2018
"We didn't work. We didn't show," Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman said. "I don't think they did anything remarkable out there. We just didn't put up a fight. That's on us. That's a tough one."
What?
It's never too early to polish the alarm bell or lay down some floorboards in the panic button. And just in time for an eight-game road trip, beginning Saturday night at Minnesota and to be interrupted only by the All-Star break.
What has happened to that team 'o yours, Lightning fans?
Who knows how we'll find coach Jon Cooper's lads on the other side of this trip?
This has been a bad month around here when it comes to Vegas. First, Jon Gruden gets a stack of chips to coach the Raiders. Thursday at Amalie, the Golden Knights erased any doubt as to who's the best story in the NHL this season. What's next, a hip check from Celine Dion?
The Lightning needs a reset — fast. Star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, facing the first true test of his NHL career, needs to get dialed back in. And someone, anyone nor named Hedman, needs to start playing defense. The Lightning is playing bad in its own end and it has spread to the other end.
"By no means is there panic in this room," captain Steven Stamkos said after the Lightning's fourth loss in six games. "Absolutely not." #TBLightning @TBLightning #GoldenKnights @TB_Times @TBTimes_JSmith https://t.co/y6o6N2G2gh
— TampaBayTimesSports (@TBTimes_Sports) January 19, 2018
The goals have dried up, too.
There is an ebb and flow to every season. And ebb never looks good.
"We've lost 9-2 in our last two home games. That's a concern," Cooper said. "They know the right way of playing and they know they're not playing the right way."
It was never going to be easy without Hedman, who is out three to six weeks. The Lightning will survive this, but it might be a photo finish. Did you really expect for this team to lose all of Hedman's minutes and all that he brings to them and just roll right along? Think again. Major test.
True, it represents a great fact-finding mission for Cooper and GM Steve Yzerman, as they get to see what, exactly, they have on the bottom of the blue line as the Lightning approaches the playoffs. Thursday was an early sampling and produced some shoddy work. Then again, this isn't about one guy trying to be Hedman. It's about 18 guys playing defense together. Tell us when you've got it down, guys.
"You've heard me say this for five years — it's what you keep out of the net, not what you put into the net," Cooper said.
It should be noted that the Lightning was beginning to sag even before Hedman went down. Yzerman's mind was already at work. He has made several in-season moves in Lightning playoff seasons, like deals for Dwayne Roloson, Braydon Coburn and Ryan Callahan. Last year, it was the move he didn't make, keeping Jonathan Drouin, to trade him for Mikhail Sergachev, who has been grand, but has also been exposed, including Thursday.
Oh, well. Maybe there is a deal to be made. Yzerman was probably going to make one before Hedman's injury. But now who? Mike Green? Jack Johnson? Jacob Trouba? I can see Tyler Johnson and or Alex Killorn being loaded onto a moving van. Whatever it takes.
The Lightning's first half was no fluke. It was built on MVP performances as well as a team concept. This team will get through this. The question is how far it will come out on the other side. Crisis happens.
Then again …
"The guys know we're better than that," Cooper said. "It hurts when you lose a game, but it really hurts when you lose them at home and you're about to embark on an eight-game road trip."
Maybe the Lightning finds itself out there. There are lots of mirrors in lots of hotel rooms.
"By no means is there panic in this room," Stamkos said.
I'm glad the captain cleared that up.
"We've been through the highs and lows of a season before. The good teams, we've always talked about it, find a way."
It's time to do just that.
Vegas has left the building.
Contact Martin Fennelly at [email protected] Follow @mjfennelly