Maroon explained the temperature rose as a result of the Predators "pushing" the Lightning in an attempt to get back into the game once behind by multiple goals. The veteran forward liked how he and his teammates responded.
"I think it's good," Maroon said following Sunday's practice session at the TGH Ice Plex. "I think the games are ramping up a little bit. People are getting engaged. The pace is obviously picking up a lot too. It's good to see guys get engaged, guys get physical and sticking up for their teammates. It was a good test for us. When they pushed, we pushed a lot harder back. It's good to see."
The Lightning and Predators are members of the Central Division in 2020-21. They'll play eight times this season as opposed to the typical two. They'll see each other quite a bit in the next two weeks too, Saturday's contest the start of four games in 11 days between the two.
Could Saturday's series opener be the start of a budding rivalry between the two teams? Was Saturday's fisticuffs an anomaly or is this to be expected with so many games this season against just a handful of teams and the truncated 56-game regular season schedule?
"I just think every point counts, every game matters now," Maroon said. "I think a 56-game season, you're playing that team either twice or three times in a week or weekend, so you've got to find a way to get points and it's going to amp up either way. You've got to find ways to bring it every single night and find a way to get two points. It kind of reminds of playing in the American League when you have weekend games and you play a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and you try to go in there and you try to grab two points as much as you can. It gets heated, game one kind of goes and then game two amps up a little more. It was good to see the guys get engaged and I thought we played a solid game. We did a good job of sticking up for our teammates."
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper believes a big reason his team won the Stanley Cup in September is because it became a group that wouldn't back down from a challenge, wasn't afraid to drop the gloves when the need arose and could intimidate teams as much as opponents wanted to intimidate them.
"I still think intimidation is a big part of the game, it's just intimidation in different ways," Cooper said following Tampa Bay's morning skate Monday. "It's not, 'Hey, who's got the biggest guy on the bench? We're going to drop the gloves.' It's who's going to hit, who's going to get right back up and hit right back. I'm a big believer in it. I like when it happens. I think it brings teams closer together, and it makes the other side say, 'Wait a second here, these guys, they're not going to go away.' I think it was a big part for us in advancing in last year's playoffs, playing against some tough teams, and it'll be a big part of us moving forward this year."
The key for the Lightning, however, is to not get too caught up in the extracurricular activity that it takes them away from their style of play. That happened somewhat Saturday. Once Tampa Bay went up 4-1, the Predators tried to agitate and draw them into the post-whistle skirmishes to try to get back in the game.
And it worked. Nashville cut the deficit to two on a power-play goal with 13 minutes to go and got to within one with its net empty in favor of an extra attacker.
For the Lightning, it's about sticking up for themselves while also continuing to play their style of game.
"I think our main focus is trying to stay out of the box," Barclay Goodrow said. "We've had a few games here where we've taken a few more penalties than we would have liked. Whenever you give any power play in this league as many chances as we've given on some nights, they're going to get some pretty good looks. I think our main goal is just try and stay out of the box and try to play 5-on-5."
