Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

The Tampa Bay Lightning And Pittsburgh Penguins Today

04/18/2019 at 3:27pm EDT

from Dan Rosen of NHL.com,

The Tampa Bay Lightning, led by coach Jon Cooper, have the talent and core players to win the Stanley Cup in the near future, general manager Julien BriseBois said Thursday, two days after they were swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Eastern Conference First Round.

Though the Lightning became the first team in NHL history to finish with the best regular-season record and get swept in the first round in a best-of-7 format, BriseBois spoke of his belief in Cooper and players like forward Nikita Kucherov, center Steven Stamkos, defenseman Victor Hedman and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.

"I have great faith that eventually we're going to get the job done and we're going to bring the Cup back to Tampa with this group of players, with these coaches," BriseBois said during Lightning exit interviews. "I'm not going to overreact and blow up all the good things we have here because we had a very bad four-game slump at the most inopportune time of the year.

"Now is not the time to make excuses. It's the time to show some humility. It's the time for us to lick our wounds, roll up our sleeves, get to work and focus on doing what we need to do so next year we're more successful."

continued

from Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,

As Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford looks to reshape his roster in the wake of a first-round sweep at the hands of the New York Islanders, he’ll be looking to improve team chemistry and add players with a hunger to win. He won’t necessarily be looking to improve team speed.

That was the message as Rutherford and coach Mike Sullivan gave a season-ending press conference Thursday afternoon in Cranberry.

Rutherford said the hallmarks of the franchise’s 2016-17 back-to-back Stanley Cup championship teams were chemistry and will to win.

“We were a team,” Rutherford said. “We were a very tight-knit team, and I didn’t see that this year, almost from day one. I didn’t see a point where our guys came together as a team, and I wonder if it’s because there’s too many guys content with where they’re at in their careers after winning a couple of Stanley Cups. Is that a signal where some of that has to be changed where you’ve got that eagerness again?

conitnued

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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