The Tampa Bay Lightning have become used to winning over the last few years. With three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances and winning two of them, the Lightning and their fans have been eating good recently. However, their run of dominance did not continue in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Lighting matched up against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who they beat in seven games last year, in the first round once again. This time, though, the Leafs got the better of the Lightning in a six-game series win. This marks Toronto's first series win since 2004, and Tampa Bay's first time missing the Stanley Cup Final since 2019.

One could argue that the Lightning played better overall throughout much of the series. They had more shots in four of six games and controlled play for large stretches of time. Even with that, some crucial mistakes wound up costing them dearly.

Without further ado, here are three reasons why the Lightning lost to the Maple Leafs.

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3. Defensive lapses

The Lightning's defense had been a recurring issue all season. After losing Ryan McDonagh and Jan Rutta last offseason, as well as Victor Hedman getting older, the defense took a notable step back this season. Tampa Bay finished the regular season No. 14 in goals allowed per game (3.07), No. 15 in penalty kill (79.7%), and No. 20 in shots allowed per game (31.5). All of those numbers are noticeably worse than they were the previous season.

Unsurprisingly, most of those same issues plagued the Lightning in the playoffs. There were multiple times when they failed to get the puck out of dangerous situations or prevent the tip-in, and the Leafs capitalized on it. The most egregious example is Ryan O'Reilly's tying goal late in Game 3 when Ian Cole gave him far too much space right in front of the net.

Yes, losing Erik Cernak to injury in Game 1 was a massive blow and drastically changed the series. However, the rest of Tampa Bay's blue-liners needed to pick up the slack in his absence, and they didn't.

2. Andrei Vasilevskiy not being Andrei Vasilevskiy

Over the past three postseasons, Vasilevskiy has been the cog that makes the Lightning machine run. In that time, he posted a 54-23 record and a .928 save% in the postseason. Naturally, the Lightning were expecting the 2021 Conn Smythe Trophy winner to be his usual self again in these playoffs.

Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, that's not what happened. Vasilevskiy had a somewhat below-average season by his standards, but the playoffs were especially rough. He had a .875 save% and a 3.56 goals against average, both among the worst of any goalie in the playoffs.

Some of the blame falls on the defense as mentioned previously, but there were several soft goals that Vasilevskiy should've easily saved. The most notable one is Morgan Rielly's overtime winner in Game 3, a sharp-angle shot from far out that somehow eluded Vasilevskiy. He's still one of the best goalies in the world, but this postseason was not his best showing at all.

1. Failing to execute in the clutch

Honestly, the previous two points on this list are more symptoms of this one than anything. Yes, the Lightning played well throughout most of the series, maybe even better than they did in last year's series. However, it doesn't matter when the team completely folded in critical situations multiple times.

To make matters worse, all three examples of this trend happened on home ice. First, in Game 3, Tampa Bay controlled the second and third periods and much of overtime, but allowed Toronto to capitalize on one of their few chances in the extra frame. Then in Game 4, the Lightning held a 4-1 lead with 10 minutes left in the third, only to blow it in spectacular fashion and then lose in overtime again. Finally, in Game 6, the Lightning had 10 more shots than the Leafs but couldn't convert and, you guessed it, lost in overtime.

These are the types of games the Lightning have closed without breaking a sweat previously. However, the Leafs completely flipped the script and exorcised their own demons this time.