What a difference a year makes

The Tampa Bay Lightning thought they were a different team during the 2019-20 season from the one that was shockingly bounced from the First Round of the 2019 Playoffs in a playoff sweep at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

They brought in experience in the form of Pat Maroon, a Stanley Cup winner with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, and Kevin Shattenkirk, a veteran defenseman with a chip on his shoulder after having his contract bought out by his hometown New York Rangers after two frustrating seasons with the Rangers.

They were more physical, bolstered in part by a trio of new acquisitions at the trade deadline. Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman provided grit and toughness and an ability to frustrate opponents to the point they get out of their game to respond to the duo. And Zach Bogosian added depth when the Lightning were badly beaten up on the blue line. Although they're inevitable, a team never wants to suffer injuries. Yet, the Lightning might have benefitted in the long run when Jan Rutta and Ryan McDonagh missed a significant amount of time before the NHL pause. Their longer-term injuries coupled with minor ailments on the blue line forced the Lightning to go out and add Bogosian just to have enough bodies to ice a lineup.

Now, he's developed into the top pair right-shot defenseman alongside Norris Trophy finalist Victor Hedman and an important piece of the Lightning's blue line.

Yet, even with the additions, even with the sense that this team was better-equipped to handle a defensive-minded outfit like the Blue Jackets in a best-of-seven series or the rigors of a lengthy playoff run, it didn't matter until the Lightning went out and proved they were a different team.

The Bolts did that once Brayden Point's backhand shot in alone on goal flipped over Joonas Korpisalo and into the back of the net, completing a wild Tampa Bay comeback in Game 5 in which it broke out to an early 2-0 lead, gave up four-consecutive goals and were down two with 10 minutes remaining and scrambled over the remaining minutes of regulation to tie the game and win in overtime on Point's moment of brilliance, the Lightning defeating the Blue Jackets 4-1 in their First Round series and finally putting an end to the question they heard ad nauseum throughout the season.

What happened in the playoffs against Columbus last year?

"A lot of learning went into last year," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper admitted after his team's spirited Game 5 victory. "We had to grow as a team. And we didn't necessarily tweak how we played the game. I don't know if it was as much our structure as it was between the ears. All of us collectively from the coaching staff all the way down had to be a little harder. We had to be better. And we had to train ourselves to play a little bit of a different way. And we did. In the end, you can lay a plan out to your players, the players have to play. They're the ones that decide and they played. All the credit goes to them."

The new additions proved their worth throughout the First Round series. Coleman and Goodrow were part of a line alongside Yanni Gourde that was a major disruptor of what Columbus was trying to do. There were long stretches over multiple games where the Lightning controlled the puck and didn't spend much time in their own end defending. A lot of that was set up by the Gourde line, which relentlessly forechecked and attacked the Blue Jackets each shift it was on the ice, often times setting the tone for how the Lightning would play for the remainder of the period.

That line contributed offensively as well, Goodrow scoring the opening goal of Game 4 off a beauty of a feed by Coleman from beside the net through the blue paint and in front of Korpisalo to his linemate on the back post. And then again in Game 5, Coleman scored his first goal as a member of the Lightning, driving a shot from the right circle that put the Bolts ahead 2-0.

"We've got different lines that can bring different elements to the games," Hedman said. "Gourdo, Coleman and Goodrow have been phenomenal throughout the first series. They bring that grit. They bring that hard forecheck game, but they chip in with big goals as well. I just like the balance on our team, and we expect the best out of everyone every night and we proved that in the first round."

Bogosian assisted on two of Tampa Bay's goals in the First Round, ranked tied for fifth on the Bolts and second among defensemen for shots (14) and was part of a defensive crew that limited Columbus to just 12 goals throughout the five game series.

Pat Maroon was acquired during the offseason, in part, because of his championship pedigree and his experience of going through the ups and downs of a postseason run to reach the ultimate goal. Although he didn't record a point in the First Round, his worth was most seen in Game 3 after the Lightning had pulled out an epic, five overtime win in the series opener but failed to cash in on their momentum in Game 2 and fell 3-1.

"Patty's got a ring and he's got one for a reason," Blake Coleman said about Maroon between Game 2 and Game 3. "He's been through this grind. I think he's been a good sounding board for our team in the sense he knows there's going to be these ups and downs. I think it's second nature for guys to want to get frustrated with a loss or not being able to score, things like that, but Patty's been great about just keeping us level, helping guys like me and other guys on the team just understand that it's going to be a long series."

And Shattenkirk saved his best moment of the postseason for when it might have mattered most. With the Lightning trailing Game 5 by a 3-2 count entering the second intermission and having been thoroughly outplayed during the previous 20 minutes, the veteran defenseman was one of the calming voices in the locker room that helped the Bolts reset and refocus.

Even when the Lightning surrendered another goal in the third period and were down by two with less than 10 minutes remaining, Shattenkirk wouldn't let his teammates hang their heads. He was encouraging on the bench, reminding the team why they had gotten to within a game of closing out the series in the first place and reinforcing they were still capable of turning things around.

Then he went out on the ice and started the comeback himself, blasting a shot from the top of the right circle that beat Korpisalo at the far post and got the Lightning to within a goal with just under eight minutes remaining. It was his first goal of the playoffs and first since the 2017 postseason while with the Washington Capitals.

It also might have been the most important goal of the game for the Lightning.

"There's a reason some of these guys were brought in," Cooper said. "And there's a reason we've done some of the things we've done with guys that have kind of pushed our team and helped our team in experience and leadership-wise. And Shatty is definitely one of them. He's invaluable when it comes to being inside the room."

The new additions weren't the only reason the Lightning had a much different outcome to their First Round playoff series against Columbus in 2020 than in 2019. During the offseason, they committed to a defense-first approach that wasn't always a natural fit for a team that's scored the most goals in the NHL the last three regular seasons.

The first two-and-a-half months were a challenge. The Lightning were a .500 team as they sorted their game out. But from late December to mid-February, their defensive philosophies started to take hold, and the Lightning played some of the best hockey they've ever played during Cooper's tenure. They went 23-2-1 over that stretch and reeled off a 10-game win streak and then a franchise-record 11-game win streak. They also didn't give up more than three goals from the start of the 2020 calendar year until February 17, displaying the style they would need to carry them far in the postseason.

"I thought throughout the year we've done a really good job of trying to win games like that," Tyler Johnson said. "I think in years past we weren't as comfortable in those close games, those one-goal games. I think we've done a good job of trying to focus on that. The guys just stuck together. Everyone was working hard, and we were winning those games as a team and that's what you need."

Oddly, the pause too proved to be a benefit for the Lightning according to Cooper. It allowed certain players to get healthy. Brayden Point is skating faster than he ever has in a Lightning sweater, in large part because he's fully recovered from the offseason hip surgeries he had before the 2019-20 regular season. Bogosian had offseason hip surgery as well and benefitted from the four month layoff, saying it really takes a year to fully recover from whatever surgery you have and his body's felt as good as it has in four or five years.

The pause allowed the coaching staff to examine their team more closely and make adjustments that normally would get lost in the daily grind of the regular season, moves like putting Gourde at center to take advantage of his unlimited supply of energy and bringing Mikhail Sergachev up to the top power-play unit with his ability to get quick wrist shots on net.

"I think the pause helped us dig deeper into our team in a time when you're wrapped up in the regular season, you don't get much time to do that," Cooper said. "That probably helped us. There was a lot of player buy-in. Everybody wants to succeed. And to sit here and think we've all got to be in this together, I think we've kind of carried that attitude as a group. I think the players have really put the team above themselves, and usually when that happens, good things are going to follow."

The Lightning are a different group than the one that set NHL records during the 2018-19 regular season but was then unceremoniously dropped out of the postseason in less than a week.

And by going up against the Blue Jackets again and controlling the series to move on to the Second Round, the Bolts proved it.

"It turned out we got a second chance, and often times you don't get that second chance," Cooper said. "It's what you do with it. You give the players a framework, but in the end, you leave it with them, and they rose to the occasion.
"I couldn't be more proud of them."