Lightning, Blue Jackets ready for rematch
The Lightning knew they could not easily erase the sting of last year’s historically early postseason exit. There was nothing they could do in October to wash out that taste.
Regular-season accolades weren’t going to mean much given that the Lightning had a pile of those from the previous season. They just had to “bury our dead,” as defenseman Braydon Coburn put it, and move on.
Win a playoff game, advance out of the first round and no one remembers last season. Do it against the opponent that knocked you out of the postseason a year ago, even better.
In a way, the Lightning have been preparing for this rematch with the Columbus Blue Jackets since they were swept and forced to reckon with how their game didn’t translate from historic success in the regular season to the playoffs. They didn’t anticipate going into Tuesday’s first round at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena with Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman’s status uncertain due to injuries, but as defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said, that’s the playoffs.
When seasons and events around the world were canceled or postponed — NCAA’s March Madness, MLB’s opening day, the Olympics — it looked like the Lightning might not get that opportunity, like the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs might not happen.
“I’m really grateful that we’re going to get a chance to finish writing our own story here,” general manager Julien BriseBois said when the NHL’s return to play plan was finalized. “It would have been a shame for the story of our team for the 2019-2020 season to not get a chance to write our own ending and have that opportunity taken away from us.”
Early on in the pause, defenseman Ryan McDonagh said it would be a huge disappointment to see the season end prematurely.
“With what our team has done this year, how we’ve set ourselves up, the additions that we’ve made, and where we were at this point of the season, trying to gear up for a long playoff run, a successful playoff run,” he said, “you just hope and you pray that there’s some scenario that we get to finish, that we get a chance to go out there as a group, as a team, and see what we can accomplish.”
Any team wants a chance to finish what they started, but the Lightning had that undercurrent of seeking redemption.
Sure, players on both teams will say this is a different year and they’re both different teams.
Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky and Matt Duchene are gone (and eliminated from the postseason). They were the star power but not the core of that Blue Jackets team.
Captain Nick
Foligno, who tangled with Stamkos at the end of Game 3 last year, is still there. Cam Atkinson, who made a point of what that first playoff series win meant to the Columbus fan base, is still there. John Tortorella, the coach who brought the Lightning their only Stanley Cup title and who excels within mind games, is still there.
Coach Jon Cooper likes to point out the Lightning’s new additions. But 17 players and six coaches were there for that momentous defeat last season.
“I’m hoping guys come in with that extra motivation and a little chip on their shoulder because I know I will,” Stamkos said at the beginning of training camp in September.
Center Brayden Point said there was a little extra motivation against the Blue Jackets during the regular season (2-1 overtime win in February). Of course that’s also going to be true in the playoffs.
The Lightning may have buried their dead, but they didn’t forget them. The team came into this season talking about a need to be more physical, to be disciplined, to improve defensive habits and to lower opponents’ scoring chances. All were issues during last year’s postseason series against Columbus.
“We just continue to be the freewheeling team that thinks we can just come into games and win because we’re skilled,” Stamkos said after an embarrassing loss in October. “We keep falling back into the same old bad habits that we’ve been doing that cost us the season we had last year.”
Throughout this season, the Lightning referred again and again to the bad habits they needed to correct. They didn’t instill a new system, but they tweaked the one they had to not just outscore opponents but to outplay them.
Cooper adopted a new mantra: two goals against gives you an opportunity to win, three puts the game in the balance and four means you have to outscore your problems.
This regular season wasn’t about winning as much as it was about setting up how they wanted to play in the postseason. Now they have finally reached those playoffs.
The Lightning say they have moved on. This is a different year, a different team. That doesn’t mean last year’s lessons didn’t stick.
Or that they don’t relish the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
word on its future schools begin to reopen.
Option 1 would maintain the Aug. 24 practice date and offer a revamped state series. All teams that sign on for the football playoffs would be placed in blind draw brackets for the eight classifications (1A through 8A).
Districts would disappear to provide more scheduling flexibility. State finals would be pushed back to the weekends of Dec. 10-12 and 17-19.
The other fall sports would also have game schedules starting the week of Sept. 7 and leading into a condensed playoff system.
Option 2 would have practices starting after August and end fall regular seasons on Nov. 28. That would eliminate state championship playoffs and in their place permit region or local FHSAA-sanctioned bowl games, tournaments and events to be concluded by Dec. 12.
Option 3 would shift the start of fall practices back to Nov. 30 and call for regularseason play from Dec. 14 through Jan. 23. State playoffs would survive but would be played in January and February, possibly with adjusted formats.
The board could vote to adopt any of those options but could also change any of the elements and consider other concepts.
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said of his contributions.
The Magic will face a Nets team Tuesday that is 4-2 in seeding play while averaging 119.7 points a game. Orlando beat Brooklyn 128-118 in the seeding opener for both teams.
The game tips off at 1 p.m. and will be televised on Fox Sports Florida.
Thursday’s game against the Pelicans has been set for 9 p.m.