The Tampa Bay Lightning are looking to rebound against the Florida Panthers on Thursday night after a 6-2 loss in Game 1.
“The sun came out this morning, and I don’t think anyone here expected us to win in four (games), so there is a lot of hockey left,” said Brandon Hagel. “It was one game.”
Hagel is right, one game doesn't determine a series.
The Lightning have never been a team to get down on themselves. In the regular season, they went through different stretches of adversity. That experience comes in handy in situations like this.
“The one thing you do get to kind of rely on a little bit is history,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said on Wednesday. “And you know, our players have dug in, and they’re pretty receptive to what has not worked well and mistakes we’ve made and then correcting them. And I think anytime you have a team that can self-correct immediately is a good sign."
“There’s a lot of committed guys in there, and ultimately the Panthers made their own breaks and capitalized on them. I think we probably helped out in some of those situations. But all in all, it wasn’t a situation where I thought we got leaned on, I guess. If that’s the case, and we clean up some of that stuff, which we’ve been good in the past, hopefully we could turn the table here.”
Notes from practice
Anthony Cirelli is considered a game-time decision.
“We’ll see if he can take warmups and if he’s cleared to play, he’ll play,” Cooper said on Thursday.
Cirelli logged 6:21 of ice time before leaving early in the second period on Tuesday. He’s had a career-best season, and his chemistry with Brandon Hagel has been a major piece to Tampa Bay’s penalty kill, which gave up three goals in Game 1.
“Tony's a big player, without him it's tough.. he’s obviously a big part of our team,” said Nick Paul. “But you know, we’ve got a lot of guys in this room ready to step up, and that's what I love about this team. That’s why I’m confident in them.”
Cirelli had career highs in goals (27), assists (32) and plus/minus (plus-30) this season.
Matching the Physicality
The Lightning have to find that edge, especially against a Panthers team that feeds off controlling the pace and intensity. It was clear early on, Florida wanted to get physical. For the most part, their style of play has stayed true to what we saw from them during last year’s playoff run: aggressive and hard to play against.
That said, it is nothing the Lightning can’t handle.
Early on in Game 1, we saw Matthew Tkachuk come for Nikita Kucherov — a move that eventually sparked a Lightning power play. In years past, the Bolts have been the team to come out on top in those situations. If they want to shift the momentum and take control of Game 2, that will have to swing back in their favor.
“You’re not going to chase physicality,” said Hagel. “Hitting is a part of the game, but at the same time you have to do it smart.”
Here's a look at the Lightning lines from Tuesday night:
Forwards
Yanni Gourde – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Jake Guentzel
Conor Geekie – Nick Paul – Gage Goncalves
Zemgus Girgensons – Luke Glendening
Defensemen
Victor Hedman – JJ Moser
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Nick Perbix
Darren Raddysh
Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy
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