Lightning look to improve penalty kill, avoid ‘stupidity’ in Game 2

TAMPA -- Brandon Hagel had some great news for the Tampa Bay Lightning and their fans on Monday.

“The sun came up this morning,” the forward said following practice at Benchmark International Arena.

Tampa Bay trails in the Eastern Conference First Round against the Montreal Canadiens heading into Game 2 here on Tuesday (The Spot, ESPN2, SN, TVAS, CBC). Hagel’s positive words came about 15 hours after a 4-3 overtime loss in Game 1 on Sunday.

Indeed, there is plenty of hockey left to go.

“And the end of the day, I didn’t believe coming into the series we were going to sweep these guys,” Hagel said. “They have a good hockey team over there, and we have that same belief. So, what does that mean? We’re probably going to win one eventually. I don’t know when it’s going to be, but we’re going to try to come in and execute our game plan, and that’s as much as we can do to the best of our ability and that will give us a chance to win.”

One thing the Lightning must do in Game 2 is stay out of the penalty box. They gave the Canadiens five power plays in the series opener and the Canadiens converted on three of them, all goals by Juraj Slafkovsky, who completed a hat trick and the game 1:22 into overtime.

"Obviously the opportunities that we gave and the number of penalties that we took are not the recipe for success in the regular season or playoffs," Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh said after Game 1. "They were able to run a lot of plays and feel the puck out there. Certainly, the PK has got to step up and do a better job."

The frustrating aspect for the Lightning was not just the amount of penalties, but that four were taken in the offensive zone, which coach Jon Cooper deemed as unnecessary lapses of judgment.

"Just look at (the penalties)," Cooper said postgame. "That's not over aggression; that was, like, stupidity ... a lot of them. That was a game we just gave them an opportunity to win."

When asked about Cooper’s remarks Monday, defenseman Darren Raddysh said, “I think you just don’t take those penalties. We don’t give them chances and maybe it’s a different outcome.”

Tampa Bay was solid at even strength; it held Montreal to one goal and 10 shots at 5-on-5, including limiting 51-goal scorer Cole Caufield to just one shot on goal at even strength. Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki, who led them during the regular season with 101 points (29 goals, 72 assists), had two assists Sunday but did not have a shot on goal.

But the mental lapses at the end of the second and third period were what inevitably did the Lightning in. At 18:32 of the second, Conor Geekie took a high-sticking penalty and Slafkovsky scored on the power play with 24 seconds remaining in the period to tie it 2-2.

The beginning of the end for Tampa Bay came with 21 seconds remaining in regulation when Jake Guentzel clipped Kaiden Guhle in the side of the head with his stick while trying to execute a redirection. Slafkovsky later closed out the game with his third power-play goal.

Slafkovsky’s second power-play goal, which gave the Canadiens a 3-2 lead at 5:56 of the third, came 1:36 after Anthony Cirelli took him down while the two were chasing a loose puck.

“There were a couple of things we went over (in practice),” Cirelli said. “The big one is obviously staying out of the penalty box.”

The Lightning have lost seven straight overtime games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and are 2-10 in their past 12 at home. It's a trend that can't continue if they want to enjoy a postseason run, but Hagel isn't ready to hit the panic button yet.

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but the sun did come up,” Hagel said again. “It was only one game.

“I think when you play Game 1, you can grab a bunch of stuff from video and grab a bunch of stuff and kind of implement it in your game. But at the same time, it’s just another hockey game. We’ve played 82 of those for a reason.” 

NHL.com independent correspondent Corey Long contributed to this report