Colton, the Lightning forward, detailed a little of what was said in that meeting, including the gist of captain Steven Stamkos' message to the team, in his interview with co-hosts Dan Rosen and Shawn P. Roarke.
"It was just right after the game," Colton said. "Usually, you'll get undressed and maybe the coach will come in and say his words, but we were still in our jerseys and 'Stammer' just said, 'Hey, boys, let me have the floor for a second.' He kind of just said we can't play like that, can't give up on our goalie, let's turn the page on that and we've got to come out with a better effort at home."
The Lightning did, winning Game 3 at Amalie Arena 6-2 on Monday to close the gap on the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Final. Colorado led the best-of-7 series heading into Game 4 at Amalie Arena in Tampa on Wednesday.
RELATED: [Complete Stanley Cup Final coverage | Stanley Cup Final schedule]
"I liked our response," Colton said. "A lot of teams rely on, 'Oh, let's just win at home, win at home,' but you can never just say just because we're coming home, it's an automatic two points. That was the key coming into this game. Just because we're coming home, doesn't mean we're going to win. I thought that was big for us that we didn't rely on just the home-ice advantage, I thought we came out and took it to them there."
Colton also said the Lightning watched video Tuesday and realized there is plenty of room for improvement.
"There is a little bit of momentum, but like I had mentioned before with coming back to home ice, just because we won last game, doesn't mean there's an automatic, 'We're going to win the next game'," he said. "It was obviously big for our confidence because that was more or less a must-win game. Confidence-wise, it was big, but in the same breath we did some video today and they still had a ton of offensive zone pressure and there were still things we need to clean up. It was big to get that win but I think even next game we need to come out with a stronger push and stronger effort if we want to win again. It was big obviously but there is still some work to be done."
In addition to chatting with Colton, Rosen and Roarke gave their thoughts on the Tampa Bay's win in Game 3 and where the series stands going into Game 4, with questions about Colorado's starting goalie and the status of Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov.
They also discussed the Dallas Stars hiring Peter DeBoer as coach, Barry Trotz's future, Dan Bylsma getting hired by the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the Seattle Kraken's new American Hockey League affiliate, and much more.
The NHL @TheRink podcast is free and listeners can subscribe on all podcast platforms. It is also available on NHL.com/multimedia/podcasts and the NHL app.
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