Notebook: Bolts prepared for bounce back performance from the Isles
Maroon: "We know what to expect coming into the game tomorrow. We're going to get their best."
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Usually when a team reconvenes after a playoff victory, there are the typical sounds of celebrations: hoots and hollers, high fives, excited chatter, clapping.
There was little of that in the Lightning locker room after its drubbing of the Islanders to start the best-of-seven ECF. Instead, the mood was subdued. Players matter-of-factly undressed from their game attire and carefully hung their equipment in the stall with little emotion.
"What is that, our ninth win in the playoffs?" Cooper asked during his media availability Tuesday, a couple wins short of the Bolts actual total of 11. "It was probably the quietest it has been in the room out of our wins. That's a pretty exciting time to win a game in the playoffs, let alone where we are right now. I think it was a combination of we know the Islanders are going to be better and a combination of I know we can be better and they know we can be better."
The Lightning were dominant in Game 1 but far from perfect. They committed too many penalties and provided the Islanders with five power plays, which they converted one for one of their two goals. And they got out of their defensive structure at times, especially once building an insurmountable lead, which led to odd-man situations against.
The Bolts were able to overcome those errors in Game 1.
But they might not be so lucky going forward.
"We know what to expect coming into the game tomorrow," Lightning forward Patrick Maroon said. "We're going to get their best. We've got to focus on our game though. It's about us in the locker room and how we're going to handle it and how we're going to dictate the play and how we're going to manage the puck. I think if we do that, we'll be fine. We've just got to focus on us."
Cooper was asked if his team sent a statement to the Islanders and the remaining playoff teams with its lopsided win in Game 1.
"It's really only a statement if you can follow it up in Game 2," Cooper answered. "We come out and lay an egg tomorrow night and it's 1-1, what kind of statement did we make? Well let's make a statement and be even better than we were last night in Game 2 and see where the chips fall. It's a good first step, but it's just one little step."
GOING 11/7: When Ryan McDonagh suffered an injury late in Game 1 of Tampa Bay's Second Round series versus Boston, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper went with an 11 forward, seven defensemen alignment for Game 2 with McDonagh able to play.
Cooper used the extra defenseman routinely during Tampa Bay's run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015 but got away from it in subsequent playoff runs, phasing it out altogether in the past couple seasons. With the hole created by McDonagh's absence on the back end, however, Cooper went back to 11/7 in Game 2 against the Bruins with much success and continued to use it to close out the series, even when McDonagh was healthy enough to re-enter the lineup for Game 5.
Again, to open the Eastern Conference Final on Monday, Cooper went 11/7, bringing in Luke Schenn as the extra defenseman and rotating a forward among the fourth line to get some of his star players more ice time.
The maneuver has worked exceptionally well. The Lightning are 5-0 in games in the 2020 Playoffs when they go 11/7.
Kevin Shattenkirk said the extra defenseman affords some blueliners more offensive touches while also allowing them to feel better in the game. Lightning defensemen combined for nine points in the Game 1 victory. Luke Schenn posted his first point of the 2020 Playoffs, assisting on Brayden Point's game-opening goal. Ryan McDonagh scored his first goal of this postseason, tallying the Bolts' third goal which would prove to be the game-winner. Victor Hedman scored a power-play goal to extend his goal streak to a career-long three games and posted three points in the series opener.
"I think it frees up a lot of us," Shattenkirk said. "I think in a way guys are playing different roles. I think even a guy like Ryan now that he's back in the lineup gets a chance to get some favorable matchups offensively as well. I think it allows us to roll our D corps a little bit more."
Shattenkirk was a major contributor offensively too. He had three assists in Game 1 and now has five assists over the last two games.
"Just passing to Victor Hedman, that's the secret right now," he joked.
SOCIALLY-DISTANCED CHEERING:Even though fans can't be in the arena to cheer their team on during the 2020 Playoffs, Tampa Bay forward Pat Maroon said Lightning supporters are keeping the Bolts energized through the videos they've made that are played in arena during games to their reactions and well wishes on social media.
"I know we're not playing in our barn, but they're cheering us loud and proud, and we hear it through social media or whatever it is," Maroon said. "We're trying to do something special this year and hopefully we can do it for those fans because they've been waiting for quite some time now. It's been a pleasure to get all these videos from the fans, so just to let them know we hear you back in Tampa and thanks for all the support."
AN OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVE: Kevin Shattenkirk has been an opponent of the Lightning for the first nine seasons of his NHL career, first as a long-time member of the St. Louis Blues and then with Washington and the New York Rangers over the past three seasons. Now in his first season with the Lightning after signing with the team as a free agent last summer, Shattenkirk was asked what's different about this current squad compared to past Lightning teams he faced on the other side of the ice.
Shattenkirk said new additions to the Lightning, namely in Pat Maroon, Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman at forward, have given the Bolts a new identity. While an opponent of the Lightning, Shattenkirk said the game plan was always to try to be physical against the Bolts and push them out of the game.
That's no longer the case as teams have found out during the 2020 Playoffs. Both the Blue Jackets and Bruins tried to ratchet up the physicality once they fell behind to the Lightning in their respective series but had little success.
"(The new additions) kind of allow us to play with our chest a little bit puffed out," Shattenkirk explained. "We know that we have a little sandpaper in our lineup now, and we're not going to get pushed around…The toughness that we show in games and seeing teams trying to do that against us and the way that we react to it and stand up for ourselves I think is something that in my mind is a huge difference."
