"I don't know how to digest this game": Bolts captain Victor Hedman makes his feelings known after Lightning's 7-6 OT loss to Blue Jackets

By ARJUN B

Modified Nov 22, 2024 05:39 GMT

The Tampa Bay Lightning suffered a tough 7-6 overtime loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night at Nationwide Arena. After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, the Lightning allowed the Blue Jackets to storm back and ultimately win the game in OT.

Lightning captain Victor Hedman did not mince words when expressing his frustration after the game.

“I don’t know. We had a great start, and then I don’t know how to digest this game.” Hedman said (per Tampa Bay reporter Gabby Shirley).

“We just have to take the night and kind of refocus and watch the tape. It was so many chances both ways and that is not how we want to play our hockey games. Credit to them. They came back hard after we scored the first three but we got to be better than that.”

Mitchell Chaffee, Anthony Cirelli, Conor Geekie, Brandon Hagel, Cameron Atkinson and Brayden Point scored for the Lightning.

The Blue Jackets roared back with tallies from Zach Werenski (two goals), Kent Johnson (two goals), Sean Monahan, Dimitri Voronkov and Yegor Chinakhov.

Elvis Merzlikins made 24 saves for Columbus. Jonas Johansson stopped 36 shots for Tampa Bay.

What Lightning HC Jon Cooper said about 7-6 OT loss to Blue Jackets

Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper acknowledged that while the team capitalized on its chances early to take a 3-0 lead, it failed to follow the recipe for success demonstrated in recent games coming out of the break.

“We played the game in quicksand tonight. We capitalized on our chances early on. You take so many good things from our last few games coming out of the break. There’s a recipe for what we need to do and, tonight, we didn’t follow it," Cooper said after the game (per Tampa Bay reporter Gabby Shirley).

Cooper noted the team cannot afford to give up the type of freebie goals and breakaways that fueled the Blue Jackets' comeback. He credited Columbus for not giving up, saying:

“Give a ton of credit to Columbus. They didn't care they were down 3-0. They were like, ‘This is a 60 minute game. We'll see what we can do to win this.’"

In contrast, Cooper lamented that Tampa Bay did not have the same determined mindset after going up 3-0.

The loss dropped Tampa Bay's record to 10-6-2 on the season. The Lightning will next host the Dallas Stars on Saturday.