Lightning search for answers after latest early exit from Stanley Cup Playoffs

TAMPA -- Several of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s top players are looking for solutions after being eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.

Andrei Vasilevskiy challenged the core group to be better in the playoffs. Forwards Nikita Kucherov, Jake Guentzel, Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel combined for one goal and one assist over the final three games of the best-of-7 series Eastern Conference First Round against the Montreal Canadiens.

Vasilevskiy is a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s top goalie, after going 39-15-4 with a 2.31 goals-against average and .912 save percentage in 58 games during the regular season. He went 3-4 with a 2.18 GAA and .897 save percentage in the playoffs.

"We all have to do our jobs," Vasilevskiy said on Tuesday. "Me, I have to make saves. Defense has to block shots and kill penalties. Offense, they should score goals.

“When one part of the team does the job, good enough to win and the other doesn't, that's how you end your season."

Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said after the 2-1 loss in Game 7 on Sunday that the 'hockey gods' were simply not on its side after Montreal was limited to just nine shots on goal (none in the second period) and scored each of its goals on deflections.

"I feel like that's been our excuse for the last few years," Vasilevskiy said. "The hockey gods, bad bounces ... yeah, bad bounces for sure, but at the end of the day it's like a broken record.

“We have to man up here. Our big players should be our best players on the ice."

Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois gave credit to the Canadiens for creating bounces and said the latter’s ability to put traffic and sticks around the net was evident and proved to be the difference in a series where each game was decided by one goal. Four required overtime, including each of the first three games.

Montreal continuously put itself in a position to win by scoring the first goal in five of the seven games. Tampa Bay won the two games it scored first.

"There are a couple areas where I thought Montreal did a better job than us, and there are areas that often determine who wins the series," BriseBois said. "One was they did a better job than us, generating goals off of shots through traffic, like screens, tips, deflected shots. They scored five of those goals; we scored three such goals.

“And I think, more importantly, they did a better job than us scoring timely goals, like goals at key moments in a game -- first four minutes of a period, last four minutes of a period, or quickly after a goal."

Despite the latest early exit, BriseBois believes the Lightning were as good as their record suggested (50-26-6) and the major moves made over the past few seasons will continue to keep the window for another Stanley Cup championship open. That includes signing Guentzel to a seven-year, $63 million contract ($9 million average annual value) after the 2023-24 season and trades for defensemen J.J. Moser and Ryan McDonagh, and forward Conor Geekie.

Tampa Bay won back-to-back championships in 2020 and 2021, then reached the Cup Final in 2022 before losing to the Colorado Avalanche. It hasn’t seen the second round since.

"The past two seasons have featured two of the best teams we've had during our current run of 13 years," BriseBois said. "Being a Stanley Cup contender and the regular-season standings, and even more so the underlying numbers of those teams the last two years would corroborate that statement. Unfortunately, it hasn't translated into playoff success yet."

"Our window, we're still in it. I don’t know how long we're going to be able to extend it; my job is to try to extend it for as long as possible. I don't see the end in sight. We're continuing fighting that fight, and so far I think we're holding our own. We're in the fight every year."

There is some business for BriseBois to handle this offseason. Darren Raddysh, who set a Lightning record for defenseman with 22 goals, can become an unrestricted free agent July 1. Kucherov, who was second in the NHL this season with 130 points (44 goals, 86 assists), has one season remaining on his contract but can sign another contract with Tampa Bay on July 1.

"(Kucherov is) a phenomenal player,"BriseBois said. "And a key reason that we are as competitive as we are is how good a player he is, and I foresee him staying in our organization for a very long time, hopefully till the end of his career. He wants to stay, and we'd like him to stay. And then when we have something to announce, we'll make an announcement."

Kucherov, who turns 33 next month, said he was more concerned about improving his game. He had six points (one goal, five assists) through the first four games against the Canadiens before being held off the score sheet for the last three.

"It doesn't matter if (the series) goes seven or four or five, at the end of the day we didn't get the job done," Kucherov said. ""My game had to be better and it wasn't."

Hagel, who had six goals in the first four games and none in the last three, said there are no excuses for the lapses in effort during the series, especially in Game 5, a 3-2 loss that saw Montreal win the majority of puck battles.

"Losing out four years in a row, it doesn't start anywhere but us in the room," Hagel said. "You've got the best coach in the entire world, you've got people giving you game plans. At the end of the day, it's going to come down to your best players being your best players in big games. And (we’ve) done (that) for a long time, but obviously over the last four years it just hasn't been our best players being our best players in key moments."