Rangers vs Lightning

NEW YORK -- Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper said Sunday that watching the replay of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final made him want to vomit because of how poorly he felt his team played against the New York Rangers.

The Lightning have a chance in Game 2 on Monday at Madison Square Garden (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports) to put on a better show and even the best-of-7 series at 1-1 before it shifts to Tampa for Game 3 and 4 later this week.

Here are three keys for the Lightning in Game 2 that, if executed properly, will give them a chance to make their coach feel better and, more importantly, an opportunity to show the Rangers this will be a difficult series.

Below also are three keys for the Rangers that, if executed properly, give them their best chance to move within two wins of their second consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

NEW YORK -- Coach Jon Cooper wasn't happy Saturday with how the Tampa Bay Lightning played in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final against the New York Rangers on Saturday.

He felt even worse the next day.

"It's funny watching games," Cooper said Sunday. "You can play the game and you can watch it and say ... you look at the game and not think you played very well, and then you watch the tape and it's actually a little better than you thought. But then there's the times that you think you played OK, and you watch the tape and you want to vomit. And that was a little bit how last night went."

Cooper said Saturday that he thought the Lightning played better in the final two periods of the 2-1 loss. But after a second viewing Sunday, he saw something very different.

"For two periods I thought we were a little bit better than we were until I watched the tape," Cooper said. "I think the Rangers played extremely well. But there are so many things ... we just kept stubbing our toe all night. We were just handing them tickets to the movie and we were a turnstile and watching them go by. We can't do that. We can't be giving pucks away, we can't be turning them over, we can't not make them go the 200 feet."

NEW YORK -- It doesn't typically get easier the deeper a team advances into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but life on the ice might be a little simpler for New York Rangers defensemen against the Tampa Bay Lightning than it was against the Washington Capitals.

It appeared that way in the Rangers' 2-1 win in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Saturday, when New York's defensemen, particularly Ryan McDonagh, Dan Boyle and Keith Yandle, were consistently joining the rush, up in the attack, and interchanging with forwards to go deep into the offensive zone.

If they're able to consistently do that for the rest of the series, the Rangers' chances of moving on to the Stanley Cup Final for a second straight season grow exponentially because defensive depth and a blue-line attack can and should be an advantage for them against the Lightning.

"We'll see," Boyle said. "Ask me in about four or five games."

For additional insight into the New York Rangers during the Eastern Conference Final series, NHL.com has enlisted the help of Dave Farrish to break down the action. Farrish will be checking in throughout the series.

Farrish was an assistant coach for the Anaheim Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs from 2005-14. He won the Stanley Cup with the Ducks in 2007. He also coached 1,027 games in the minor leagues, including the American Hockey League. In addition, Farrish, a former defenseman, played 430 games over seven seasons in the NHL.

Dave Farrish didn't feel the score in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final was indicative of how well the New York Rangers played on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.

NEW YORK -- Dominic Moore wore the Broadway Hat signifying the players' choice for the New York Rangers' player of the game. He was also named the first star of the game Saturday at Madison Square Garden.

These accolades, all well-deserved, only came Moore's way because he scored the winning goal for the Rangers on Saturday in their 2-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final.

If somebody else scored, that player would have gotten the accolades, but if it were up to Moore's teammates, every story written about the Rangers in the Stanley Cup Playoffs would include at least a passing mention of No. 28 in blue, white and red.

NEW YORK - Coach Alain Vigneault believes defending well will ultimately lead to quality scoring chances for his New York Rangers.

While the goals haven't come in bunches during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Rangers have certainly done enough defensively to provide the impetus in the opposing end while stalling some of the top offenses in the Eastern Conference.

The Rangers exhibited one of those sterling defensive performances once again Saturday in a 2-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final at Madison Square Garden.

Game 2 is Monday at Madison Square Garden (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports).

The win was the 13th straight one-goal decision and ninth 2-1 game the Rangers have played in the playoffs. They are 7-2 in 2-1 games.

NEW YORK -- Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop did his part to keep his team in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final at Madison Square Garden, but two unlucky bounces ended up being the difference in a 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday.

"There was some contact, battling in front, and I lost it and then I don't know if [the puck] went off of the stick or off of somebody and then [Stepan] was right there," said Bishop, who also said he didn't think he was interfered with on the play.

Tampa Bay tied the game 6:45 in the third period on a power-play goal by Ondrej Palat, but Rangers forward Dominic Moore was in the right place at the right time when Kevin Hayes threw a puck at the net with 2:35 remaining in regulation. The puck hit Moore's leg and went past Bishop to give the Rangers the win and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.

NEW YORK -- Tampa Bay Lightning center Brian Boyle, right wing Ryan Callahan and defenseman Anton Stralman will face a very familiar opponent in the Eastern Conference Final.

Boyle, Callahan and Stralman each have their sights set on winning the Stanley Cup, and play the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final, with whom they each spent at least three seasons with.

"This is a unique thing," Boyle said Friday. "It's certainly interesting how it's all kind of unfolded. But I really didn't expect anything else to be honest with you."

Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final is Saturday at Madison Square Garden (1 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVA Sports).

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Martin St. Louis walked into the New York Rangers dressing room following practice Friday to find a swell of cameras and reporters forming a crowded semicircle around his stall, so big the media invaded space reserved for goalie Henrik Lundqvist and defenseman Dan Girardi.

Under normal circumstances the media wouldn't be looking to document every word said by a player who has no goals in 12 games in the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but these aren't normal circumstances for St. Louis heading into Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday at Madison Square Garden (1 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVA Sports).

St. Louis played 972 games with the Lightning from 2000 until he was traded to the Rangers on March 5, 2014. He won the Stanley Cup and Hart Trophy as a member of the Lightning in 2004, and  twice finished as the NHL's regular-season scoring champ.

St. Louis was the one of the faces and arguably the heart and soul of the Lightning for nearly a decade and a half as the undrafted, small right wing who built a Hall of Fame resume. Now he has to go up against his former team and teammates for the right to play in the Stanley Cup Final.

Goaltending plays an integral part in the Stanley Cup Playoffs so NHL.com broke down the Eastern Conference Final battle between Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers and Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Much like many goaltending coaches do before a playoff series, NHL.com correspondent Kevin Woodley, the managing editor of InGoal Magazine, charted every goal scored with the help of a program from Double Blue Sport Analytics. Regular-season goals were recorded in their original Save Review System, and playoff goals, including how they were scored, were tracked in the soon-to-launch SRS 2.0. The graphics showing where goals went in and shots were taken from on the ice are nice, but the real value is analyzing the plays that led to them and whether they reveal strengths, weaknesses and tendencies that can be targeted.