Articles in Tampa Bay Lightning

added 11:07am,

from Joe Smith of The Athletic,

Cooper had given intro speeches a half-dozen times in previous stops, from his first coaching job at a high school in Lansing, Mich., to teams in Texarkana, Green Bay, Wis., and Norfolk, Va. But this was different. These weren’t kids. It was future Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis. Captain Vinny Lecavalier. Future cornerstones Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman.

GM Steve Yzerman introduced Cooper, telling the group there’d been a leadership change. The next time they made changes, it’d be to the roster. The Hall of Famer had Cooper’s back from the start. All eyes were glued on Cooper, wearing a suit, no tie and a striped shirt unbuttoned at the top.

“The silence was deafening,” Cooper remembers.

The speech was short, about five minutes, but it was memorable. He brought up his background, having started on Wall Street and as a lawyer. He told the team it needed to be close — do everything together. He said they were going to have fun, with coaches allowing music in the dressing room before games and between periods.

And then there was the kicker.

“He told our team it was missing something — and that was swagger,” Stamkos says. “And he had that to him. He said this group was eventually going to get there.”

“He was convincing,” adds St. Louis, now an NHL head coach himself in Montreal. “I felt good about it. I can say that.”

Swagger or not, nobody — not even Cooper — envisioned what was coming. Four trips to the Stanley Cup Final in 10 years. Two Stanley Cups. No coach in NHL history has more wins at their 10-year anniversary with a team than Cooper’s 476, according to NHL Stats. The list of coaches who spent their full first decade with the same franchise is just 11 deep, including the likes of Toe Blake, Jack Adams and Barry Trotz — and Cooper has the most wins of anyone on it. The only coaches to have more combined regular season and playoff wins over any 10-year span are Arbour and Scotty Bowman. There may never be another coach who wins 11 consecutive playoff series.

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from John Romano of the Tampa Bay Lightning,

Little by little, player by player, time has nibbled away at the heart of the Lightning’s back-to-back championship teams.

And the rest of the NHL has applauded.

There’s nothing malicious about that. It’s just the nature of sports. Everyone wants to win, and the Lightning have been buzzing around the throne a lot longer than most. It was inevitable that the salary cap and expansion drafts would eventually take a toll.

And so now fans in New Jersey are cheering for Ondrej Palat in the playoffs.

And Yanni Gourde in Seattle. And Carter Verhaeghe in Florida. And Luke Schenn in Toronto.

The Lightning, meanwhile, are looking at a post-bully role in the NHL.

General manager Julien BriseBois said Tuesday morning that 2023 was a missed opportunity for Tampa Bay. The Lightning, he said, had all the ingredients needed to win a Stanley Cup, but just came up short. And he thinks the Lightning will still be Cup contenders in 2024 and will proceed accordingly this offseason.

All that sounds accurate, but it’s not the entire story.

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from John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times,

The season has ended, and that is regrettable.

What’s far more worrisome is the possibility that an era was vanquished with it.

If you had an uneasy feeling in your gut while watching the Lightning lose 2-1 in overtime of Game 6 against Toronto on Saturday night, that faraway concern might explain it. As if the inevitability of so many nights on ice had finally run down this team of grinders and stars.

Oh, they still have skill. They still have polish, fight and verve. Just not in the abundance of days past. And now, after nine years of superb hockey, you can’t help but wonder if the window has finally come close enough to closing that it will be hard to squeeze through again.

Not that the Lightning went down without a fight against the Maple Leafs in this series. They outplayed Toronto for long stretches, taking a lead into the third period of four games and coming from behind Saturday night to force an overtime in a fifth game.

But whatever separates champions from hopefuls was missing. Whatever sent the Lightning dancing into the night in 2020 and 2021 was lacking at critical moments in Games 3, 4 and 6 against Toronto.

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Toronto has won their first playoff series since 2004.

Below watch the OT winner, handshakes and highlights.

The next 48 hours will be a Groundhog Day gong show medley in a fragile Toronto hockey market. The same old questions all over again.

-Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic has more ($) on Leafs/Lightning.

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

All day long, no matter where you went around Toronto, no matter who you talked to, everything was about the Maple Leafs.

Everything was about the excitement of the day — downtown, in the suburbs, just about everywhere, and eventually the excitement of the night.

The city and Leaf Nation were all prepared for a victory. Ready for some new history to be written. Ready to turn the past into tomorrow. And then Game 5 of the best-of-seven series with the Tampa Bay Lightning began and it was: Here we go again for the Maple Leafs.

Another opportunity to advance to Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs lost. Another opportunity moved from Game 5 to Game 6. Another night when all those talking all day — on edge, bottled up emotion, really — had every reason to believe they could, and should, expect more from their favourite hockey team.

But once again — this is now 10 attempts, zero wins — for the Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner led Maple Leafs. This was another slap in the face for this regime, which is all about talent until the game and the series matter most.

There are a lot of new Leafs on this team, 10 changes from the club that lost to Tampa Bay a year ago, but the top of the lineup is the same.

The top was not good enough again. The bottom was not good enough again.

contiuned

Game highlights are below.

from John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times,

The past two seasons have shown there isn’t a whole lot of difference in the level of talent between Tampa Bay and Toronto. The Maple Leafs have Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews. The Lightning have Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. The Leafs have John Tavares. The Lightning have Steven Stamkos. The Leafs have Morgan Rielly. The Lightning have Victor Hedman. Yes, Tampa Bay’s depth has dissipated and, yes, Ryan O’Reilly has changed the dynamic in Toronto but, all in all, these are similar teams.

Except in the net.

Vasilevskiy is Tampa Bay’s rainmaker. The Conn Smythe winner. The guy who closes the deal. The best goaltender in the NHL. This was not supposed to be a showdown between Vasilevskiy and Toronto goalie Ilya Samsonov, because it looked to be such a mismatch. Samsonov had a 1-6 playoff record and little acclaim. Vasilevskiy had two Stanley Cups and a road map to the Hall of Fame.

And, yet, there is an argument to be made that Samsonov has outplayed Vasilevskiy. At the very least, Vasy has failed to steal a game for Tampa Bay in the series.

There’s a relatively new hockey statistic called goals saved above average (GSAA) or above expectation. It’s calculated differently by different outlets, but it basically charts the number of shots faced by a goaltender and measures that versus the number of scores. Some versions just use league averages in the calculation, and some judge the quality of the shot. In other words, some calculations may not have any subjectivity, good or bad, and others might have an argumentative quality.

In hockeyreference.com’s calculation, Vasilevskiy has the worst GSAA in the 2023 playoffs. In naturalstattrick.com, he is second-worst.

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from Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic,

“Ultimately I still think winning is the No. 1 thing that drives him,” Getzlaf said. “His mentality, his compete level, still always has come from a place proving himself and proving people wrong. When he was younger, a lot of people told him he couldn’t skate well enough — stuff that I’m sure is still pushing him to this day.

“But I think, again, ultimately he enjoys being out there. He loves to be competing. And he’ll do it until they ask him not to.”

Perry doesn’t take a single day in the NHL for granted.

“I love the game,” Perry said. “I love the day-to-day stuff. Being around the guys and laughing, being on the airplane and joking around.”

And well, spring hockey.

“As soon as the playoffs come, that’s why I play the game.”

He’s an absolute beauty, that’s what Corey Perry is. They don’t make them like him anymore.

Cherish every playoff game we have left with him, hockey fans.

Well, hockey fans outside of Toronto.'

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from Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times,

The Lightning needed a response from their Game 2 loss in Toronto when they returned to home ice Saturday night.

Their Game 3 effort would qualify as one, but it wasn’t enough to take control of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series against the Maple Leafs.

In many ways, Tampa Bay outplayed Toronto at Amalie Arena. The Lightning had the Maple Leafs on the ropes for most of the nearly 60 minutes that followed an even opening period but couldn’t deliver a knockout blow.

After Tampa Bay allowed an extra-attacker tying goal to Maple Leafs forward Ryan O’Reilly with 60 seconds left in regulation, Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly’s wrister from above the left circle beat Andrei Vasilevskiy near side above his blocker with 45 seconds remaining in overtime, sending the Lightning to a heartbreaking 4-3 loss.

With the defeat, the Lightning trail in the series 2-1 going into Monday’s Game 4 at Amalie Arena. In last postseason’s first-round meeting between the teams, Tampa Bay faced the same deficit and rallied to win in seven games.

“(We) just continue to play with this same game plan,” captain Steven Stamkos said. “We were in the same position last year. So let’s just continue to plug away.

“Besides the results, I thought this was as good of a game as you can play and not win. So unfortunately, those don’t count much in the playoffs. Wins matter. So we’ll have to regroup, and I’ve got faith that we will.”

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Game highlights are below.

from Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun,

Some of our takeaways from the Leafs’ win on Thursday, tying the best-of-seven series 1-1:

STARS SHINE

Start with Mitch Marner drawing a tripping penalty on Lightning defenceman Ian Cole at 40 seconds and scoring on the power play seven seconds later.

Follow with captain John Tavares scoring at five-on-five, a goal that came before a laser to the top corner by William Nylander gave Toronto a 3-0 lead.

Morgan Rielly had the primary assist on all three goals. Auston Matthews assisted on two of them.

If you’re going to climb back from going down 1-0 in a series, the men who take up the most room under the salary cap must be at the front of the charge. That’s exactly what happened on Thursday night.

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from Justin Bourne of Sportsnet,

The question I’m going to get into today is, if you’re the Toronto Maple Leafs, how much do you want to acknowledge the Lightning's players who try to drag you into scrums with face-washes and jawing and other forms of emotional warfare, when there’s an actual hockey game to be won? I think it’s well-established that no team wants to be a Sedin getting rabbit punched by Brad Marchand, they don’t want to be Auston Matthews not acknowledging the choke-out attempt from Ben Chiarot, they can’t just “turn the other cheek” for seven games when both cheeks are getting punched in. But you also can’t get lost in the sauce when there’s actual hockey to be played.

Fun facts on the Lightning’s “edge”:

This season they “lead” the NHL in PIMs, they’re second in fighting majors, and they’re first in misconducts. They live in the box, totalling an average of 12:10(!) in PIMs per game, which is up from last year when they finished second in PIMs per game with 11:30. That year they finished two seconds behind the Preds 11:32 per game, which was built on the back of Tanner Jeannot’s league-leading 14 fighting majors (among forwards), so … Tampa promptly traded for him.

A stunning fact: this is the 11^th straight season the Lightning have either finished first or second in the NHL in PIMs per game (it’s here I’ll note the presumably-pure-coincidence that this is Jon Cooper’s 11^th season with the team). I say “first or second,” but they’ve only been second twice and have lead the league nine times. The 2011-12 season was the last time they were outside the top-two, but what’s even crazier is you have to go back to 2005-06 to find a season where they weren’t top-5 in the NHL in PIMs per game.

Even with this history of playing an, er, abrasive game, it’s increasingly become a larger part of their identity.

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from Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic,

The Tampa Bay Lightning were trailing the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 after two periods on Saturday when coach Jon Cooper decided to send a message, benching his three top scorers, Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, for the entire third period....

Point scored a power-play goal with assists from Kucherov and Stamkos to open the scoring in the game. But after that, the Lightning’s top players were an issue defensively. Stamkos was a minus three, Point was a minus two and Kucherov was a minus one. The Sabres have 84 percent of the expected goals when Stamkos was on the ice at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“Well, as coaches you’ve got to put your team in the best position to win and 99.9 percent of the time those guys give us the best chance to win when they’re on the ice,” Cooper said after the game. “This team’s been unbelievable for a decade and you take the three finals, well there’s a reason a lot of that’s happened. We have a set of standards here that everybody adheres to and it’s not pick and choose, it’s everybody. It’s how it was for today and, like I said, those guys are an extremely important part of our team but for 20 minutes tonight, I thought the other guys could get it done and they almost did.”

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Game highlights are below..

TAMPA BAY - The Tampa Bay Lightning have acquired forward Tanner Jeannot from the Nashville Predators in exchange for defenseman Cal Foote, the Lightning's first-round pick in 2025 (Top 10 protected), their second-round selection in 2024, as well as third, fourth and fifth-round picks in 2023, vice president and general manager Julien BriseBois announced today.

Jeannot, 6-foot-2, 208 pounds, has played in 56 games for the Predators this season, recording five goals and 14 points, including 85 penalty minutes. He leads Nashville for hits with 213 and all forwards for blocked shots with 51.

The Estevan, Saskatchewan native has appeared in 152 career NHL games, all with Nashville, recording 34 goals and 62 points with 217 penalty minutes. Jeannot has also skated in nine career Stanley Cup Playoff games during the 2021 and 2022 postseasons, recording a pair of assists.

Jeannot was originally undrafted and signed with the Predators as a free agent.

NEW YORK (Feb. 24, 2023) – Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak has been suspended for two games, without pay, for elbowing Buffalo Sabres forward Kyle Okposo during NHL Game No. 921 in Tampa on Thursday, Feb. 23, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.The incident occurred at 18:23 of the third period.Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and, based on his average annual salary, Cernak will forfeit $31,891.90. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

For a full explanation of the decision, complete with video, please click on the following link: https://www.nhl.com/video/t-277440360/c-1547257

from Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff,

Today, we’re going to key in on the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are shooting for a fourth straight Stanley Cup Final appearance. They’re on a collision course with the Toronto Maple Leafs again in the first round. What do the Lightning have up their sleeve after Toronto’s trade for Ryan O’Reilly?

Top Objective: Depth Defender

If Tampa’s penalty kill is really a concern, or if Cooper would like to reduce Victor Hedman’s workload leading up to the playoffs, perhaps the best course of action is to acquire a defenseman who can add to their depth, aid the penalty kill and provide a physical presence. We’ve seen that Tampa is active in that market with both Ian Cole and Philippe Myers being added to the mix, though the Myers bet (and extension) doesn’t look like it will pay off.

Secondary Objective: Depth Forward

One element certainly missing in Tampa’s bottom six forward group is a burst of speed. None of Pat Maroon, Corey Perry, or Pierre-Edouard Bellemare would be considered a burner. The Bolts could use some turbo there, preferably one with term if they’re going to be giving up some of their precious few assets.

Potential Targets

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Congrats Steven.

from Chris Krenn of TampaBayLightning.com,

With the Tampa Bay Lightning just past the halfway point of the 2022-23 regular season, Bolts general manager Julien BriseBois met with members of the media on Tuesday and offered his perspective on the first half of the year, the upcoming trade deadline and more.

Through 41 games this season, the Lightning's points percentage sat at .671. At the halfway point of last year, it was also .671. The year before that, it was .670, and the year prior, it was .656.

So, what does that tell BriseBois? It's obvious.

The team has been tremendously consistent. And in all three of those aforementioned seasons, the Bolts made it to the Stanley Cup Final.

"It tells me that we're just as much of a Stanley Cup contender this year as we were the last three years, and we shouldn't treat it any differently," BriseBois said. "We have an all-world goalie, some all-world 'D,' good depth at the 'D' position. Our center line is really strong. We've got scoring on the wings. Our elite players are having really good seasons. We have a really strong coaching staff.

"It's a veteran group that's done it before, so we know they can do it, because they've done it time and time again, both the players and the coaching staff."

BriseBois has been pleased with the first half of a season that has the Lightning sitting in third place in the Atlantic Division and tied for fifth in the NHL in points percentage.

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from Mike McKenna of The Daily Faceoff,

It’s been on my mind for a while now: Steven Stamkos is the second coming of Steve Yzerman.

And when the Lightning captain scored his 500th NHL goal Wednesday night against the Vancouver Canucks, I couldn’t help but think of the parallels.

Stamkos and Yzerman both captained Stanley Cup winning teams. Both are lifers with one NHL organization. They’re prolific scorers. And so much more.

I think direct comparisons are really hard to make in sports. And no doubt, Yzerman and Stamkos have charted separate courses during their respective NHL careers. But whenever Stamkos decides to hang ‘em up, I believe they’ll be seen in a very similar light....

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Stamkos has started to resemble Yzerman, who captained the Detroit Red Wings for an astounding 19 seasons. He could skate. So can Stamkos. And while the Lightning center is a better pure shooter than Yzerman was, I think Stamkos sees the game in a similar way.

When you compare their respective careers, the similarities are striking. The production of each player – when adjusted for era – tends to mirror one another’s. Through 15 adjusted seasons according to Hockey Reference, they’d be 71 points apart. But take a look beyond point totals. Stamkos and Yzerman were both negative plus-minus players several times early in their career. That’s not to say either was irresponsible. But I do think it’s tangible that Yzerman spent the last 14 seasons of his career as a plus player. And it’s now been a decade since Stamkos finished an NHL season as a negative.

Yzerman may have been a more complete, 200-foot player earlier in his career than Stamkos was. But I think the Lightning forward doesn’t receive enough credit for his play away from the puck.

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Including goal #500.

NEW YORK (Jan. 13, 2023) – Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for roughing Vancouver Canucks forward Conor Garland during NHL Game No. 667 in Tampa on Thursday, Jan. 12, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.

The incident occurred at 19:19 of the third period. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Watch below.

from Chris Johnston of North Star Bets,

There will be an interesting dynamic among the Atlantic’s three-headed monster as the March 3 trade deadline draws closer.

The Bruins are giving off ‘Last Dance’ vibes, with Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and David Pastrnak all playing on expiring contracts. Their window of contention may be closing and general manager Don Sweeney will want to ensure they’ve got everything needed for a shot at the Cup.

We’ve come to expect Lightning GM Julien BriseBois to aggressively pursue in-season upgrades every year, although he’s got a little less ammunition to do so after sending his first-round draft pick in both 2023 and 2024 to Chicago for forward Brandon Hagel at last year’s deadline.

“We’ve probably been looked at for the price we’ve given up for some players, but Hagel’s a top-line player for us with multiple years on his contract. You have to pay for those,” said Cooper. “If it costs you two first-round picks, it costs two first-round picks.”

The Leafs were involved in the Hagel talks as well and didn’t end up parting with that level of draft capital at last year’s deadline. It wouldn’t be surprising to see GM Kyle Dubas shift gears this year if he can find the right fit for a player with some term remaining on his deal.

A heavy price must be paid to emerge from the Group of Death – both on and off the ice.

With still more than half of the regular season remaining, it’s a little early to forecast who has the upper hand in a head-to-head-to-head scenario.

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from John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times,

Well, that was entertaining. And maybe a little scary.

The Lightning played what might have been their best 20 minutes of hockey all season in the first period against Boston on Monday night. They also outscored the Bruins in the third period.

And, yet, they still managed to lose 5-3.

That’s how hot the Bruins are. And that’s how much ground the Lightning need to make up if they plan on extending their three-year hold on the Eastern Conference....

The good news is it’s still ridiculously early. And regular-season results in November are not necessarily a precursor to what you’ll see once spring arrives.

In the previous five years, the Bruins and Lightning had gone 8-8 against each other in the regular season. But all that really matters is the Lightning went 8-2 against Boston in two postseason showdowns. In other words, there’s plenty of time and hope for better results to come.

“Guess we just have to remember this feeling because, you know, we felt like was could have walked out of here with two points,” said forward Pat Maroon, who had two assists and a plus-one rating.

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Game highlights are below

from John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times,

Even Luciano Pavarotti had to occasionally clear his throat.

That’s what Tuesday night felt like for the Lightning. The once, and possibly future, champions took the ice through a flashing entryway amidst thunderous applause for the home opener at Amalie Arena. They looked as slick and chic as ever, and they had a sold-out crowd screaming its adoring approval.

And when it came time to hit the high notes, they burped.

It was disappointing, but not necessarily shocking. For teams that are well-traveled on the road to the Stanley Cup final, there is a lazy Sunday drive-quality to the regular season.

Don’t get me wrong, the regular season matters. You can’t pass Go without it. But, sometimes, it takes a little time to get everything and everyone steering in the right direction.

In the meantime, you have games like Tuesday when the Lightning blew a two-goal lead and lost 3-2 to a Flyers team with a little more energy, a little more spunk, a little more appetite.

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