from Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune,

With 40 points, Tampa Bay is sixth in the Atlantic Division, seven points behind leader Montreal. The Lightning is 11th in the Eastern Conference, three points out of the final wild-card berth.

Though climbing from outside the playoff picture into the top eight seems like a daunting task in today’s age of parity and three-point games, recent history shows it’s not impossible.

Last year, Ottawa and Minnesota were out of the playoffs on Jan. 1 — Ottawa was six points out of the eighth spot and Minnesota was seven back — and made it to the postseason. In 2013-14, four teams were out of the playoff picture on New Year’s Day — Columbus, New York Rangers, Minnesota and Dallas — before clinching berths with strong second-half showings.

To get there, however, Tampa Bay needs to play with more urgency and show they belong in the conversation.

“We are in a spot where we just need to find some consistency in our game,’’ Cooper said. “I don’t want to say it’s playoff time, it’s way too early to say that. But our urgency to close out games in the third (period) when it’s close, that’s what we have to do. And our starts have to be better.

“We are almost like that team that waits to get punched first. And then we get up and we are counter-punching, but got out-pointed so early that we lose the fight because we couldn’t come back enough.’’

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