from Arpon Basu of NHL.com,

The Lightning are 9-4 in the playoffs when they use seven defensemen, a significantly better mark than 5-5 when Cooper goes with a traditional lineup of 12 forwards and six defensemen.

"It’s interesting because we didn’t do it much during the year in the regular season, even if he’s done it in the past," Lightning center Brian Boyle said. "But it’s worked for us.

"It was kind of weird at first; I didn’t understand why we were doing this. But I’m not smart enough to be a coach."

The first time Cooper did it in the playoffs was in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Detroit Red Wings, and it was out of necessity. Defenseman Jason Garrison was coming back from an upper-body injury that sidelined him for four weeks, and Cooper decided to keep Nikita Nesterov in the lineup as a seventh defenseman as insurance.

It was something just about any coach would do.

The Lightning won 3-2 in double overtime coming off a 3-0 loss in Game 3, beginning a trend Cooper used through the first two rounds.

Four of the next five times Cooper used a lineup with seven defensemen it was following a loss. The Lightning won three of those games, including Game 6 at Detroit to force Game 7; Game 6 against the Montreal Canadiens in the second round to clinch that series; and Game 2 against the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final to tie the series 1-1.

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