Champs still confident
Lightning ‘not worried’ after OT loss in Game 1
DENVER — Minutes after losing Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in overtime, Patrick Maroon scoffed at the idea that it was some sort of gut punch to the Lightning.
“Two really good teams going at it,” he said. “That’s Game 1. We just got to refocus and be ready for Game 2.”
Few teams in recent NHL history are better at doing that, which is why the Lightning are unfazed about trailing the Avalanche. The two-time defending champions have won 11 consecutive series since their remarkable postseason run began in 2020; in five of them, the Lightning have lost the opener — including twice this postseason — and the experience has steeled them for situations just like this.
“It’s not about riding the wave of one game,” coach Jon Cooper said Thursday. “It’s kind of about getting our feet under us. It’s understanding we’re playing a different team. We can’t win the series all in one game, and (players have) been really good at that.”
Players wasted no time in moving on to Game 2 on Saturday night. The Lightning, after all, had roared back from a 3-1 first-period deficit to tie the opener before Andre Burakovsky’s overtime winner. Elements from successful stretches of Game 1 can factor into the team’s tweaks and changes moving forward.
“We’ve done a great job of making adjustments after losses, so we’ll look to do that,” captain Steven Stamkos said. “The mindset is we’re here to win a series and you don’t know when that’s going to come: four games, five, six, seven. You never know.”
The Lightning have over the last three postseasons won series in all those combinations. But it wasn’t long ago that they were on the wrong side of a stunning defeat.
It’s hard to forget the Lightning getting swept in the first round by the Blue Jackets in 2019 after steamrolling the rest of the league all season and winning the Presidents’ Trophy with the best overall record. The adjustments, absent any panic moves like firing Cooper or breaking up the core, paved the way for this run.
The memory of that series and the 11 since that ended with them on the smiling side of the handshake line combines to give the Lightning the perspective they have today.
“That’s the great thing about our group: There aren’t many situations that we haven’t been in,” longtime winger Alex Killorn said. “It feels like we’ve seen it all. We’re not worried. We’re confident going forward. But there’s a lot more work to be done.”
That includes trying to figure out how to slow down the speedy Avalanche. Despite not getting past the second round the last four years, the Avs also have plenty of playoff experience and knows to expect a major pushback from the champs in Game 2.
Coach Jared Bednar believes the best way to handle that is for his team to keep playing its style.
“Regardless of how Tampa plays, we have a certain identity that we need to play to to be successful,” Bednar said. “We’ve learned that this season, especially. And then for me, it’s just managing those momentum swings.”
The Lightning are the first team since Wayne Gretzky’s Oilers in the mid-1980s to reach the final three years in a row and are four victories away from the league’s first three-peat since the Islanders dynasty of the early ’80s. Cooper has managed to keep his players’ emotions in check so much that defenseman Mikhail Sergachev called the 1-0 deficit “the usual stuff.”
As unusual as it was for the Lightning to fall behind 2-0 last round against the Rangers, the Avalanche present a different challenge behind their high-end talent.
While the Lightning will need to improve their play, their mentality is now their biggest advantage.
“That’s taken some time for us to kind of fall into that mindset, but we’ve really developed that over the years,” Cooper said. “Hopefully one more series we can carry that through.”
Injury updates: Injured Avalanche forwards Nazem Kadri and Andrew Cogliano skated with an assistant coach Thursday after missing Game 1.
Kadri skated with a stick in his hand for the first time since injuring his right thumb crashing into the boards during the last round. He didn’t take any shots in 45 minutes on the ice.
Cogliano took a puck to the right hand in the Avalanche’s series clincher against the Oilers in the Western Conference final. He appears closer to being ready to face the Lightning than Kadri, who was injured on a hit by Evander Kane that prompted a one-game suspension.