BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 There\u2019s a neck-and-neck, three-way race for the Atlantic Division title, and the only person seemingly not buying into the buzz might be Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper.<\/p>\n
Emerging from the Lightning locker room before playing at Buffalo on Monday night, Cooper shook his head in mock dismay upon seeing the larger than usual crowd of reporters awaiting his arrival.<\/p>\n
\u201cUgh. Why are there so many people here?\u201d Cooper asked with a wink. \u201cIt\u2019s Game 77 folks, not Game 83.\u201d<\/p>\n
Point taken from a two-time Stanley Cup-winner overseeing a team that\u2019s already clinched its 12th playoff berth over his 13-year tenure in Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
As much as Cooper can appreciate the importance of a late-season outing between two budding Atlantic Division rivals jockeying for playoff positioning, it doesn\u2019t match the ramped-up intensity that follows an 82-game regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Game 77. I think both teams accomplished their goals for the year in regard to the regular season,\u201d he said, before the Lightning\u2019s 4-2 loss. \u201cIt\u2019s just I don\u2019t put a ton of stock into it. The stock was made of making the final eight (in the Eastern Conference), and we did that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tell that to the upstart Sabres and their revitalized fanbase celebrating a team finally snapping an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no different in Montreal, where the young and talented Canadiens are continuing the franchise\u2019s upward trajectory in securing back-to-back playoff berths for just the second time in 11 years.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUpstarts shake up Atlantic hierarchy<\/p>\n
Entering Tuesday, the Lightning and Sabres were tied for the division lead with 102 points. Montreal sat only two points back in a season the Atlantic\u2019s hierarchy \u2014 save for the Lightning \u2014 has been turned upside down.<\/p>\n
While the Bruins are in contention and Ottawa and Detroit battling for wild-card seeds, the two-time defending Cup champion Florida Panthers have already been eliminated. So has Toronto, with the Maple Leafs in upheaval after missing the playoffs for the first time in 11 years.<\/p>\n
Keith Pelley, CEO of the Maple Leafs\u2019 parent corporation, said as much of the shifting landscape in discussing his reasons for firing GM Brad Treliving last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely didn\u2019t see the train coming which was the Buffalo Sabres and the Montreal Canadiens,\u201d Pelley said. \u201cBuffalo and Montreal have shown that they\u2019re young, energetic teams who are gonna be here for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the hope in Buffalo, where the Sabres are on a 36-9-4 run that\u2019s vaulted them from last place in East in early December.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to take a lot of pride in the fact you made the playoffs in a year where this division and this conference was so incredibly tough,\u201d Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. <\/p>\n
And unlike Cooper, Ruff is relishing this moment in the second year of his second stint in Buffalo.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBuzz returns to Buffalo<\/p>\n
He\u2019s captivated by the electricity the team has generated after its 17th consecutive sellout on Monday, and 22nd of the season. The fans were fully on board in booing the Lightning from the pregame warmup to chanting \u201cWe want Hagel!\u201d in the third period.<\/p>\n
Hagel has emerged as Public Enemy No. 1 in Buffalo after the Lightning forward jumped captain Rasmus Dahlin from behind in the Sabres electrifying 8-7 win a month ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s into it,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cI think our fans have been waiting for this for a while, so it\u2019s good to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lightning forward Brayden Point was measured in assessing the loss to Buffalo.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis game definitely had more meaning than some of them. And it\u2019s disappointing not to get the result we wanted,\u201d Point said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t playoff Game 1, so there\u2019s still time to learn from it, but hopefully we learn pretty quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Montreal, the Canadiens had won eight straight before losing to New Jersey on Sunday, and host the Lightning on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLightning remain competitive<\/p>\n
Cooper has enjoyed seeing the competitive shift that’s taken place in the division, while reassured the Lightning have stayed in the mix.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuffalo has a heck of a team. And I\u2019d like to think we\u2019re not too shabby ourselves,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cThere\u2019s been waves of different teams that have made the playoffs in our division, and we\u2019ve found a way to be able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Come playoff time, Cooper is holding the Lightning to a higher standard no matter where they finish, noting Tampa Bay hasn\u2019t won a playoff series since failing to three-peat as Cup champions in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s potentially new teams sitting around the table but it shouldn\u2019t change anything in our mindset,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cWe need to look after our business here to keep moving forward because haven\u2019t been really satisfied with the fact that we\u2019ve been bounced the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 There\u2019s a neck-and-neck, three-way race for the Atlantic Division title, and the only person…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[37837,1251,5,189,4,540,92,5168,5167],"class_list":{"0":"post-546487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-ap-sports","9":"tag-associated-press","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-lightning","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabaylightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116366381277649823","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}