After the Lightning\u2019s last game at the Bell Centre, coach Jon Cooper was frustrated that it seemed like every time the officials separated a big scrum, they\u2019d send an extra Lightning player to the bench or hand out an extra penalty to Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
In that 2-1 loss to the Canadiens on April 9, the teams combined for 31 penalties and 126 penalty minutes. The Canadiens had seven power plays; the Lightning had four.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was probably even more surprised how they got put on the power play six times in a row,\u201d Cooper said that night, giving a long sigh. \u201cWe must have been, I guess, the aggressors, apparently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Less than two weeks later, the Lightning no longer are claiming innocence.<\/p>\n
They have fully embraced their role of being the bad guys. As their best-of-seven, first-round Stanley Cup playoff series heads to Montreal for Friday\u2019s Game 3 with the series tied 1-1, the bully Bolts are quite the story.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody\u2019s got to be the villain, I guess,\u201d Cooper said after the Lightning\u2019s 3-2 overtime win in Game 2 at Benchmark International Arena. \u201cAnd we\u2019re OK, we\u2019re OK with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that last game in Montreal, the Lightning wanted to send some messages to set up their likely postseason meeting, but they put themselves at a major disadvantage by having to kill off 14 minutes of Canadiens power-play time. While the game was decided in 5-on-5 on Juraj Slafkovsky\u2019s goal with four seconds left, it became clear that night that both teams were willing to go to the penalty box in order to show their physicality.<\/p>\n
Now, with the series going back to Montreal, that storyline has only grown stronger.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about it a lot, when we\u2019re playing with that emotion and that passion, kind of that love of the game, when it really comes out, it brings the best out of our team,\u201d Lightning forward Gage Goncalves said. \u201cSo we\u2019re gonna have to do that. We\u2019re definitely gonna have to keep it in check at times \u2014 not get too high or too low \u2014 but I know we have a lot of wily vets in there that they know how to settle us down pretty quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a relatively tame series opener, the Lightning set a physical tone in Game 2 in a first period that included 16 penalties and took nearly an hour to complete. They intensified that approach as the game went on as Brandon Hagel dropped Slafkovsky with an overhead hook in the second period.<\/p>\n
Coming out of a first-period scrum that began when Josh Anderson tried to intercept Hagel after the whistle and far away from the play, the Lightning emerged from the fray with an extra penalty when Corey Perry received a double minor.<\/p>\n
Montreal would then tie the score on the ensuing power play after a goal by defenseman Lane Hutson.<\/p>\n
Asked about his postgame comments after the last game in Montreal, and how they came away from that Game 2 scrum with an extra penalty, Cooper was far more diplomatic as the Lightning enter a Game 3 that could feature a similar level of sandpaper.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t sit here and complain that we have the extra guy taken every time,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cWe\u2019ve deserved it, at times. I can\u2019t sit here and say we haven\u2019t. Do I think there\u2019s situations where maybe they\u2019ve let some slide on their end? There\u2019s no question.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooper did note that the officials gave Montreal defenseman Arber Xhekaj an extra penalty following his tussle with Yanni Gourde on the first scrum of the night in Game 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I can\u2019t sit here and say we\u2019re getting pulled out of a scrum,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cSo it\u2019s not like it\u2019s completely one-sided, but it does feel that times it\u2019s a little more us.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far this series, the power plays have been nearly even \u2014 Montreal has had nine and the Lightning eight \u2014 but special teams have played a huge role through two games. Montreal has scored four of its six goals on the power play, and there were nearly 14 minutes of special teams time in Game 2 after almost 15 in Game 1.<\/p>\n
Whether that continues throughout the series remains to be seen, but the Lightning go on the road embracing the role of bad guys now more than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know everybody loves being the hero, but it\u2019s almost more fun to play the villain sometimes,\u201d Goncalves said. \u201cSo, yeah, we\u2019re excited to have that role. \u2026 if you get booed or you get cheers, you get to hear it all. It gives you energy. And they\u2019re passionate fans, as they should be. They have a great hockey team over there, so I know all of us are super excited to go in there and play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lightning 1, Canadiens 1
\nEASTERN CONFERENCE: FIRST ROUND<\/p>\n
Game 1: Canadiens 4, Lightning 3 (OT)
\nGame 2, Tuesday: Lightning 3, Canadiens 2 (OT)
\nGame 3, Friday: at Montreal, 7, TNT, truTV
\nGame 4, Sunday: at Montreal, 7, ESPN
\nGame 5, April 29: at Tampa, TBD*
\nGame 6, May 1: at Montreal, TBD*
\nGame 7, May 3: at Tampa, TBD*<\/p>\n
*if necessary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the Lightning\u2019s last game at the Bell Centre, coach Jon Cooper was frustrated that it seemed like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,62,5,264,21,5147,4,62731,43,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-558413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-montreal","12":"tag-montreal-canadiens","13":"tag-montrealcanadiens","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-social-sports","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116455519268290977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558413","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=558413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}