VANCOUVER Womens Brayden Point Jersey , British Columbia — The Tampa Bay Lightning do not have much trouble with offense.But, lately, defense has been a different story.The Lightning (25-7-2), which sit first overall in the NHL and leads the league in goals with 138, has surrendered 15 markers in its last three games.Article continues below ...Assistant coach Derek Lalonde, standing in for head coach Jon Cooper after a practice in Vancouver on Monday, noted there is a need to emphasize offense in today’s NHL. But he said the Bolts will be putting the onus on defense in Tuesday’s game against the Canucks (16-16-4).“There’s a fine line of thinking offense, playing offense (and) instinctively playing offense, but not giving up on the other end – and we’ve crossed it at times,” said Lalonde.The Bolts are looking to rebound after Sunday’s 5-4 overtime loss in Winnipeg ended their winning streak at eight games.“(It’s) probably a good lesson learned,” said Lalonde of the close loss against one of the NHL’s best clubs. “I would say we’ve been getting away with (loose play), but we’ve had some games where we got away with (wins). It was through great goaltending or a last-second defensive save.”Lalonde said defenseman and forwards alike have to think about defense collectively.“Our guys have done a pretty good job of self-evaluating, knowing when to tighten (play) up and when they’ve left (the defensive effort) out there,” said Lalonde. “The last couple games, we’ve left it out there a little more.”The Lightning regarded the game against Winnipeg as a litmus test for their season. The Canucks pose much less of a challenge than the Jets, but Vancouver has won five of its past six games Braydon Coburn Jersey , including back-to-back home games on the weekend against Philadelphia and a surging Edmonton squad.“They’re a good team,” said Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman of the Canucks. “Just from watching from the sidelines a little bit, offensively, they’ve been going for a while and we know they can score goals.”The Canucks have averaged four goals per game in their last quartet of contests. In the game before those four, they scored six times.“We have a lot of sharpshooters out there and a lot of guys who can put the puck in the net, so it was just a matter of time before (the goals) started flooding in,” center Bo Horvat, 25, told reporters.After being considered a playoff after-thought, the Canucks have moved into the wild-card discussion. Tuesday’s contest against the NHL’s best club will serve as a potential benchmark after the Canucks achieved a high standard in Sunday’s win over the Oilers.“I would say it was one of our better games of the year,” said Vancouver coach Travis Green.Consequently, the Lightning has probably picked a good time to think more about defense. NEWARK, N.J. (AP) The worst season in nearly three decades is just a recent memory, and so is the five-year drought.The New Jersey Devils are back in the playoffs, and again in the hunt for the Stanley Cup. It’s like old times.The Devils completed a remarkable comeback season by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 on Thursday night to clinch their first postseason berth since making it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012.It capped an offseason and regular season that saw general manager Ray Shero reshape half his 25-man roster through free agency, the draft and trades and have John Hynes make all the right moves to keep his team in a playoff position every day of the season.Not bad for a club that won 28 games and finished last in the Eastern Conference in 2016-17.”This is the best J.T. Miller Jersey , the best,” said veteran defenseman Ben Lovejoy, who won a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 2016. ”My first stint in Pittsburgh and Anaheim and then again in Pittsburgh, I never appreciated what baseball players did. I thought it was stupid when they would come in and have champagne when they made the playoffs. I get it now. Making the playoffs is hard.”The Devils can point to so many players in bouncing back from their worst season since 1988-89. Taylor Hall (39 goals, 54 assists) had a career year that teammates feel merits the Hart Trophy as the league MVP. Top draft pick Nico Hischier overcame a slow start to have 19 goals and 51 points. Free agent Will Butcher set a team record for rookie defensemen with 44 points.The unsung hero was goaltender Keith Kinkaid, who stepped for an injured Cory Schneider and carried the team over the final 10 weeks, going 10-1-1 in the last 12 games and helping the New York-metropolitan area avoid being shut out of the postseason for the first time since the Devils took up residence in New Jersey in 1982. The Rangers and Islanders will miss the postseason.”It’s fun, but playoffs are a new breed,” said Kinkaid, who re-signed with the team in the offseason despite being an unrestricted free agent.There are only two players left from the Devils’ 2011-12 team: defenseman and captain Andy Greene, and Travis Zajac, who centers the line Hynes’ uses against the opponent’s top line.While there have been lean years, Zajac said the Devils rediscovered themselves this season. They practiced and played hard, and made sure opponents knew they were in for a battle every game.The results have been a 44-28-9 record that includes a 25-8-9 mark in one-goal games. It was a record that reminded many of the old Devils, a franchise that made the playoffs 20 of 22 times and won three Cups between 1989-90 and 2011-12.This group, however Womens Charlie McAvoy Jersey , skates faster and is relentless.Last year, the Devils were disappointing underachievers. Their biggest sin was failing to compete every night. And they paid the price, especially down the stretch when they went 3-17-4.Hynes and Shero changed that. It started with the roster makeover that included the signing of veteran Brian Boyle, and an attitude readjustment.”It’s a different skill set and youth,” said Shero, who also strengthened the team during the season by acquiring defenseman Sami Vatanen and forwards Michael Grabner and Patrick Maroon in trades. ”But they had to fight, they clawed and scraped to get what they’ve got and they’ve earned it.”With a game to play, the Devils won’t learn their first-round opponent until Saturday at the earliest. They are the top wild-card team in the Eastern Conference, and they will at least stay there if they win at Washington on Saturday night. They also could go up or down depending on what Columbus, Philadelphia, Florida and Pittsburgh do.It really doesn’t matter. The Devils are just looking forward to the postseason.”You go into this year thinking it’s going to be a bigger challenge,” said Boyle, who provided inspiration by overcoming cancer early in the season. ”Plenty of people were writing us off. It makes it pretty sweet to clinch. I have just tried to tell everyone: `It’s going to be so much fun. You have never played hockey this fun in your life until you play playoff hockey.”’—