TAMPA — Across the board, the Tampa Bay Lightning talked a lot coming into this series about reversing their recent Game 1 playoff form.
Nightmares of last year’s 6-2 thumping at the hands of the Florida Panthers still dance in their heads. It set the tone for that five-game series loss. And nobody needs to mention the Lightning lost Game 1 to the Panthers two years ago, too, en route to going down 3-0 in the series in another five-game loss.
So the idea, no matter how obvious, was that they were not going to chase their first-round series this time around.
“It’s about setting the tone and trying to let us set the series up instead of letting someone else dictate it,” winger Brandon Hagel said on the eve of Game 1.
Well, Hagel did his part Sunday, scoring a pair of goals and making his presence felt all night long.
But for a third year in a row, the Lightning have opened their playoffs in a 0-1 series hole, with Sunday night’s 4-3 overtime loss to a young but very game Montreal Canadiens side leaving Tampa with a lot to think about.
“Yeah, it’s obviously not a place you want to be,” Hagel said after the game. “But I think at the same time, you can look at this game, I think we shot ourselves in the foot. I take an O-zone penalty, and you can go down the list. I don’t think any of those penalties we took prevented a goal. They just put goals in the back of our net. So at the end of the day if you’re going to do that, it’s going to be a long series, or a short series if you want. … We got to learn from stuff like this. I think that’s an easy fix. They obviously came in here and played a good game. They’re a really good hockey team and we knew that.”
Head coach Jon Cooper was steaming post-game. And it wasn’t at the refs.
“No, I had a problem with us,” Cooper said. “I mean, come on, we took four offensive-zone penalties. Just look at them. That’s not over-aggression. That’s just stupidity, you know, a lot of them. That was on us. That was a game that we just gave them an opportunity to win. This is the Stanley Cup playoffs. This isn’t Game 62. So that is extremely disappointing in the way we conducted ourselves and the amount of penalties we took.
“Now let’s be honest, (Montreal) went 3-for-6 or whatever it was (3-for-5)? So if you’re going to kill penalties off at 50 percent, then you’re probably not going to last very long. But if you’re killing penalties off at 50 percent when you only gave up two, so it’s 1-for-2, you know, maybe you can survive. But you can’t let that happen. So that’s on us. There’s no excuses. Nothing.”
The Bolts seemed almost shocked they took so many dumb penalties. They’re the veteran, savvy team, after all. They’re the team that has won multiple Stanley Cup titles in recent years. They’re not supposed to do dumb things like that.
“We’re a pretty accountable group here, and to take the penalties that we took tonight (was) pretty much unacceptable,” said veteran leader Ryan McDonagh. “I think a handful of them in the offensive zone, 200 feet away from the net. If it’s a good penalty, that’s one thing, but I don’t think any of them tonight were good. So not great on our part.”
No better example than Jake Guentzel’s high-sticking penalty on Kaiden Guhle with 21 seconds left in the third period, which eventually led to Juraj Slafkovsky’s overtime winner.
“A lot of those penalties were definitely avoidable,” said Hagel, who singled out his own penalty in the first period. “At the same, we got to be better on the penalty kill.”
Indeed, they’re one of the best penalty-killing teams in the league, third in the regular season with a 82.6 percent success rate, led by two of the best penalty killers in the world.
“Obviously the opportunities that we gave and the number of penalties that we took are not the recipe for success in the regular season or playoffs,” said McDonagh. “They were able to run a lot of plays and feel the puck out there. Certainly the PK has got to step up and do a better job.”
Hagel called himself out in that regard, saying he and his PK pal Anthony Cirelli have got to be better than they were in Game 1 against Montreal’s dangerous power play.
All these things are true. And the Lightning held themselves accountable post-game Sunday night.
But one thing also stood out: the Lightning felt so much of Game 1 was self-inflicted that they gave the game away. And I think there’s a real danger for Tampa in overlooking another truth — that the Canadiens might just be more ready for this despite their youth than a lot of people thought.
Tampa’s two quick goals 29 seconds apart in the second period to take a 2-1 lead felt like the kind of moment that might bury a young team. The ice was tilted there in back-to-back shifts. The building was rocking. There was that uh-oh feeling hanging in the air from the Canadiens.
Funny thing happened though. The Habs steadied themselves to score the next two goals. And even Tampa tying it 3-3 at 8:58 of the third period on Hagel’s second of the night didn’t rattle Montreal whatsoever.
Instead, it was hard to tell which team had all the experience and which team was the youngest team in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was a quality, veteran player like Guentzel taking the high-sticking penalty late. And it was Montreal capitalizing in overtime on the man advantage.
And now, the pressure shifts tangibly to the Lightning, who have three straight first-round exits hanging over them entering this postseason. Granted, two of them were to eventual Cup champion Florida. Still, a fourth consecutive first-round exit against a team they were heavily favored to beat would be incredibly hard to swallow.
Odds are the Bolts still win this series, with too much poise and top-end skill and playoff know-how to be rattled after just one game.
Still, losing their playoff opener yet again is not what Tampa wanted.
“Listen, Game 1s are Game 1s. I’ve been a part of series where we’ve won them and lost the series, and lost them and won the series, and everything in between,” Cooper said. “That isn’t as much a concern as how we lost it. So if that’s going to be the way we keep going, this series may not go as long as we thought. Now, do I think we have better in us, I think we do. There’s some good things to be taken from tonight. But ultimately, we’re down 1-0 and now we have to win four of the next six.
“There’s been taller tasks. Gosh, I’ve been in series where we’ve lost the first two and come back and win. This isn’t do-or-die or anything, but sitting here 15 minutes after a game, you’re a little ticked off.”
At which point, Cooper got up from his seat at the podium and left after taking only three questions from media.
Make no mistake, this series already got real interesting in a hurry.