The Tampa Bay Lightning are celebrating the Stanley Cup following a 2-0 win against the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place in Edmonton. Then, Lightning coach Jon Cooper is sitting by his pool, smoking a cigar, and contemplating the challenge of trying to win it again.
"The big thing for me is you can't be full," Cooper said. "If you win one Cup, are you full or are you still hungry?"
The Lightning have remained hungry so far, defeating the Florida Panthers in six games in the best-of-7 Stanley Cup First Round and leading the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 in the second round.
Quest for the Cup joins the eight teams that have advanced to the second round: the Lightning and Hurricanes in the Discover Central Division; the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights in the Honda West Division; the Boston Bruins and New York Islanders in the MassMutual East Division; and the Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets in the Scotia North Division.
Narrator Corey Stoll notes that these teams know each other well from playing eight times during the regular season, with play limited to within each division because of travel restrictions in the United States and Canada during the coronavirus pandemic. That has ratcheted up the intensity of the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the start, which the viewer sees with up-close looks at Game 1 between Colorado and Vegas and Game 2 between Tampa Bay and Carolina.
"When you are familiar with the teams and you've played this many times, you kind of know each other are about," Cooper said. "Carolina in a normal year we'd only play three times. Now we're playing them eight. So now it's just a whole different feel going into a series."
Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog goes from a peaceful day at home with wife Melissa, 19-month-old daughter Linnea and 3-month-old son Lucas, to a heated battle with the Golden Knights. Taking Linnea for a ride in her wagon and changing Lucas' diapers keep Landeskog grounded before he scores two goals and has an assist in a 7-1 home win in Game 1.
"It was a good start to the series," Landeskog said on his way out of Ball Arena. "You've got to take advantage of home ice. We worked so hard all year to get it."
The Hurricanes had home-ice advantage to begin their second-round series, but the Lightning withstood their frantic final-minute comeback efforts to win Game 2 2-1.
"I ask you to be (expletive) warriors and you guys are (expletive) warriors," Cooper proudly tells the Lightning after the game. "Adversity hits … it's like clockwork in the playoffs."
