Lightning unfazed after dropping Game 1
Minutes after losing Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals in overtime in Denver on Wednesday night, Patrick Maroon scoffed at the idea that it was some sort of gut punch to the Tampa Bay 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 Colorado Avalanche. The two-time defending champions have won 11 consecutive series since their postseason run began in 2020; in five of them, Tampa has 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. Tampa Bay, after all, had roared back from a 3-1 firstperiod 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 mind-set 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 past 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 Tampa Bay getting swept in the first round by Columbus 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 wing Alex Killorn said. “It feels like we’ve seen it all. We’re not worried. We’re confident going forward. But there’s definitely a lot more work to be done.”
Tampa Bay is the first team since Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers in the mid-1980s to reach the Finals three years in a row and is four victories shy of the league’s first threepeat since the New York Islanders’ dynasty of the early ’80s.
While the Lightning will need to improve their play, most notably how they start, their confidence is unshaken.
“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 and take another step forward.”
Flyers hire coach: The Philadelphia Flyers have hired John Tortorella as their coach, hoping he can help lead them to their first Stanley Cup championship since 1975.
Tortorella, who turns 64 next week, coached Tampa Bay to a Stanley Cup title in 2004, and he also coached the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks. He was fired in May 2021 after six seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Blue Jackets went 227166-54 under Tortorella, including a franchise-best 50-24-8 finish in 2016-17, but were 18-2612 during the 2020-21 season before he was fired.
It’s a deal: Vegas traded wing Evgeni Dadonov to Montreal for defenseman Shea Weber, who missed the 2021-22 season because of injuries and is not expected to play again.
Weber, who was the Canadiens’ captain, has four years left on his contract. He is expected to remain on long-term injured reserve, a status that could enable the Golden Knights to receive salary cap relief.
Dadonov, 33, had 20 goals and 23 assists in 78 games this season.