VANCOUVER Eric Tangradi Jersey Womens , 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 http://www.officialislanders.com/authentic-adidas-casey-cizikas-jersey ,” 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, 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 Adam Pelech Jersey Womens , 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. A 36-goal scorer is moving closer to home and couldn’t be happier about it.No, the other one.James van Riemsdyk signed a $35 million, five-year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday Thomas Hickey Jersey Womens , the second-richest deal signed by an NHL unrestricted free agent when the market opened and John Tavares left the Islanders for his hometown team in Toronto.It’s the kind of long-term, big-money contract general manager Ron Hextall has been unwilling to hand out to free agents, though van Riemsdyk became an exception.”The term we could live with,” Hextall said. ”We can manage our way around the salary cap. We’ve looked up, down and all around at different projections for the next few years and we felt comfortable with the term and the player.”Van Riemsdyk will count $7 million against the salary cap through 2022-23, which is currently third on the Flyers behind captain Claude Giroux at $8.275 million and winger Jakub Voracek at $8.25 million. Taken by Philadelphia second overall behind Patrick Kane in the 2007 draft, van Riemsdyk played with Giroux and Voracek during his first stint and talked to them before picking the Flyers over other interested teams.The 29-year-old wasn’t likely to return to Toronto even before the Maple Leafs won the Tavares sweepstakes. But the Middletown, New Jersey, native also grew up rooting for the New York Rangers and picked the Flyers in large part because of familiarity .”There were a couple different teams in the mix,” van Riemsdyk said. ”I’m happy to be coming to Philadelphia John Tavares Jersey , and I think it’s going to be a great fit.”Van Riemsdyk set a career high with 36 goals last season, a year after putting up a career-high 62 points. The 6-foot-3, 217-pound winger who was traded to the Maple Leafs in 2012 isn’t a fundamentally different player now but gained confidence and experience from a bigger role in Toronto the past six seasons.”I think my whole game has definitely expanded,” van Riemsdyk said. ”Style-wise, I think I’m still very similar. I think I’m still a cerebral type of player who can skate well and have good offensive instincts and can make the smart plays in all three zones.”He has to be for the Flyers to make this type of commitment. This is by far Hextall’s biggest free agent signing and Philadelphia’s richest since giving goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov $41.88 million on a nine-year deal in 2011.Bryzgalov is retired and still collecting $1.6 million a year from the Flyers through 2026-27. As Bryzgalov was tweeting from Russia’s World Cup game against Spain, the Flyers were introducing van Riemsdyk, who they hope will be a far better use of money with an eye toward contending for the Stanley Cup in the coming years.”Our philosophy four years ago was to get our cap in order and gather young assets,” Hextall said. ”We’ve kind of been through that process now. It’s coming to fruition in terms of guys we have on our team and where we can add to strengthen our team, we want to do it.”—