Here’s what Lightning can take away from sloppy loss to Sabres

TAMPA — The Lightning have had their playoff spot clinched for a while and have nothing left to gain in the standings. Still, Monday night’s 4-2 loss to the Sabres at Amalie Arena stung.

They have one game left in the regular season to get back on track.

“Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy,” captain Steven Stamkos said. “At this rate, we lose another guy in ‘Glenny’ (forward Luke Glendening), it’s tough to see. Not much to look at that was good (Monday). So, we’ve got one game left to just do the little things right, the stuff that we practice every day in practice, just the nuances of the details.”

The Lightning (44-29-8) suffered their third straight loss and fourth in their last five games, outplayed by a Sabres team that finished its season on Monday. Dylan Cozens scored twice for Buffalo, including a short-handed goal 5:08 into the second period that broke a 1-1 tie and seemed to be the game-changer.

“I think at times (Monday) we look like we just want to get out of the game instead of finishing it through,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We were fine. .... The short-handed goal, I think, popped our bubble a little bit. We got that chance, and the (penalty kill) on the two-on-one, but their goalie (Eric Comrie) made a nice save. After that, we were just flat. And it looked more like we were just trying to get the game over with and make sure we didn’t lose anybody else.”

With the Lightning finishing the regular season Wednesday at home against the Maple Leafs, here are four things to take away from Monday’s loss.

Another blow

The main goal for these final few games was for the Lightning to stay healthy. That did not happen Monday.

Early in the second period, Glendening seemed to slip as he was hit from behind. His right arm and shoulder went hard into the boards, and he left the ice bent over in obvious pain.

“He won’t be in there Wednesday, I know that,” Cooper said. “There’s always concern. There’s a concern when (forward Tyler) Motte went down (last week with a lower-body injury). There is concern when Glendening goes down. There is concern every time somebody walks down the hallway.”

Stamkos scores 40th

Nikita Kucherov set up Stamkos for a dramatic tying goal 2:27 into the second period. Kucherov stripped defenseman Rasmus Dahlin of the puck in front of the Sabres net and tapped it quickly to Stamkos, who snapped a shot past Comrie.

It was not only Kucherov’s 99th assist of the season, it was Stamkos’ 40th goal. The 34-year-old forward, in the last year of his contract, has reached the 40-goal mark seven times. That is tied for 11th-most in NHL history and is second among active players. Alex Ovechkin has done it 13 times.

99 and holding

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Kucherov heads into the final game still looking for his 100th assist.

Entering this season, only three players had done it in the history of the NHL: Wayne Gretzky (11 times), Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr. The last time a player had 100 or more in a season was Gretzky with 122 in 1990-91.

The Oilers’ Connor McDavid became the fourth member of the 100-assist club late Monday night, reaching the mark against the Sharks.

Nothing settled

While the Lightning know they are in the playoffs, they don’t yet know who they will face in the opening round, which gets underway this weekend. The Bruins (109 points) and Panthers (108) are still jockeying for the Atlantic Division lead with one game remaining.

With the way Tampa Bay has struggled of late, Stamkos said it doesn’t matter to him: “Listen, to be the best you have to beat the best at some point, whether you play that team in the first round or the third round.”

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