from John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times,

Please, don’t call this revenge. That would imply a grievance of some type, and the Lightning have spent the past 16 months blaming only themselves.

No, this was more like the first purposeful steps toward absolution. More will eventually be required but, for now, beating Columbus 5-4 in overtime of Game 5 on Wednesday to move on to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs is enough.

Enough to forgive, if not forget, the historic disappointment of last year’s postseason loss to Columbus. Enough to tweak, if not rewrite, the reputation of a team that has lost one big game too many.

Enough to cause the normally deadpan Jon Cooper to emphatically pump his fist as the Lightning coach walked off the ice following the traditional post-series handshake with the opponents.

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