from Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times,
... Two days after that loss, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper’s words at a press conference were pep rally-worthy.
“Unfortunately we dropped that game,’’ he said. “But if there’s one thing we learned, it’s that we know we belong.’’
There’s no reason to take that statement too far, to parse it for all its possible meanings and to make the leap that the Lightning have major questions about their place in the world. But it did make one pause. Not as much as Bruce Boudreau’s words did on the eve of Game 7 of the Western Conference final, when he said he wouldn’t be surprised if his Ducks fell behind 1-0 near the start of that contest. Way to set the tone, coach!
But Cooper’s words were odd coming from the coach of one of the two teams left standing in the Stanley Cup Final. They had the whiff of subservience to them. After three hard-fought series, the Lightning needed Game 1 to know they belonged on the ice with the Hawks?
Now, Cooper would surely argue that his team indeed showed no fear in bouncing back with a wild 4-3 victory Saturday night. But all of the Lightning’s public self-esteem exercises have felt a little over the top.
It’s hard to imagine the Hawks feeling the need to reassure anyone. They’ve seen everything there is to see, and they’ve done everything there is to do. They see Game 3 on the docket for Monday night at the United Center, and they know they’ve seen a lot of games just like this one. Tampa Bay has found ways to win games in the postseason, but nobody has figured out more ways to win important games than the Hawks have the past seven seasons.
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