Lightning coach puts on brave face

There were no promises. No guarantees that the series was coming back to Tampa Bay or that the Lightning would even win a game. No one was quite willing to put his neck on the line.

Instead, with the Lightning down 2-0 to the Washington Capitals in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final, Tampa head coach Jon Cooper sought for a sense of calm.

“It happens,” Cooper said of losing the first two games of the series at home. “Nobody plays the perfect game, nobody goes 82-0. Nobody goes 16-0 in the playoffs. It’s just heightened when you’re at this time of year. Is it discouraging that this has happened to us right now? There’s no question. But come on, boys, let’s regroup and do what we do best and what we’ve done together this year, and we’ll be OK.

“I think the people who have been around this team long enough know the kind of heart that’s in that room. We’ll be all right.”

It’s about all you could really say in a series where the Lightning have been outscored

Let’s regroup and do what we do best and what we’ve done together this year, and we’ll be OK.

10-4 in two games. It’s not that Tampa Bay hasn’t played well enough to win. It’s that Washington has been the much better team in every area that you could imagine.

The challenge for the Lightning will be to generate 5-on-5 scoring opportunities — three of their four goals have come on the power play — as well as limiting the Capitals’ top line of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson, who have combined for four goals so far.

How did they plan on doing that? Cooper wouldn’t share, although he did say it wasn’t a fluke that Tampa Bay had got this far.

“I’m just confident in our group,” he said. “They’ve got 113 points for a reason. There’s a really good group of guys there. They’ve got a ton of experience, and when their backs have been against the wall, they’ve shown a propensity to fight back.”

Tampa goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was pulled after allowing four goals in Game 1, gave up another six goals in Game 2. That was as many combined goals as he allowed in the entire first round against New Jersey.

But while Vasilevskiy hasn’t been his best so far in the Eastern Conference final, there’s no talk of sitting him down for Game 3. “Vasi is our guy,” said Cooper. “He’s been the rock of this team all year.”