Looking back: 3 losses that could cost Lightning a playoff spot
Perhaps the writing was on the wall as early as the fourth game of the season.
The Tampa Bay Lightning - who pushed the Pittsburgh Penguins to seven games in the 2016 Eastern Conference finals - now sit four points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs in the race for the final wild-card spot.
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With that in mind, here's a quick look back at three losses that could prove to be very costly if the Lightning ultimately miss the playoffs.
Oct. 20 vs. Colorado
After kicking off the regular season with three straight wins, the Lightning dropped a 4-0 decision to the Avalanche on home ice.
It was difficult to foresee just how far Colorado's season would fall downhill from that point on, but the Avalanche are now a full 20 points behind the Arizona Coyotes at the bottom of the NHL standings, on track for the worst season of any team in the shootout era.
Losing a game to Colorado in 2016-17 is a bad result, by any measure.
Jan. 21 @ Arizona
As mentioned, the Coyotes are the next-worst team in the NHL after Colorado, and have scored only 2.36 goals per game.
On this day, however, Arizona dropped five goals on the Lightning, all of which were allowed by a since-traded Ben Bishop on just 17 shots against.
For their part, the Lightning managed 48 shots, but puck luck clearly wasn't on their side, resulting in a tough-to-swallow 5-3 defeat.
March 21 vs. Arizona
Despite playing without star center Steven Stamkos for most of the season - while enduring a host of other injuries and playing the role of seller at the trade deadline - the Lightning entered Wednesday's game against Arizona with a chance to make up some ground in the playoff race.
The result? Another 5-3 loss at the hands of the Coyotes. To make matters worse, the Lightning held a 3-2 lead heading into the third period.
"There's been a lot of frustrating games this year, so this ranks up there," head coach Jon Cooper said afterward, per the Associated Press. "How important the game is to us .... That 3-2 lead at home in a must-win for us, to give it up like we did, it's frustrating, to say the least."
It's not over yet, but things look bleak with 10 games remaining on the schedule. And while a lot of factors have contributed to Tampa Bay's slide, it's easy to look back at those three games as missed opportunities.