Days have been brighter in Tampa Bay.

When the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night, it eliminated the Lightning from postseason contention. For players who opted to watch the Leafs-Penguins game, like defenseman Victor Hedman, seeing the Leafs ice their victory with an empty net goal was extremely painful.

"After that empty net goal, an empty feeling. Season is over," Hedman told Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times.

The club made a valiant effort to reach the postseason, going 7-1-1 in their last nine games. But in the end, it just wasn't enough.

The fact that they rallied down the stretch of the regular season when many had already written them off certainly says something about the team's character. However, it also marks the second consecutive season in which they dug themselves a hole in the first half of the season.

As for why the team struggled in the first half of the season, Defenseman Anton Stralman wasn't shy about sharing his opinion.

"I think it's a matter of coming together as a team and playing for one another instead of as individuals," Stralman said. "The main reason we had success as of late, we played as a team.

"Even though we won games early on I don't think we were playing good hockey. And that kind of gives you false comfort. You win games and you think you're doing well and then you get in the mode where you're still playing the same way and start losing, that's when when it spirals downwards."

The team started off 13-7-1, but wound up with a sub .500 record of 22-24-6 in early February.

"There has to be more urgency," said forward Alex Killorn, referring to the team's poor first half.

If the Lightning can play with urgency next season, they could be a forced to be reckoned with.

The team managed to stay in playoff contention despite not having Steven Stamkos for the majority of the season. The two-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner played just 17 games before suffering a torn lateral meniscus.

Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy proved he can be a legit No. 1 guy, Jonathan Drouin enjoyed a breakout year, and Brayden Point thrived in his rookie campaign. Both Hedman and Nikita Kucherov had the best seasons of their career. If this can carry over to 2017-18 - with a healthy Stamkos - Tampa could find themselves back in Stanley Cup contention.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.