TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning’s roster does have some new faces this season, but one still would be hard pressed to find a more battle-tested group. They know how to pull out wins, especially late. They have done it time and time again over the past three seasons, including under the spotlight of the playoffs.
But sometimes even the best teams need a reminder that history doesn’t guarantee future success.
The Lightning got that wake-up call early on in their home opener loss to the Flyers on Oct. 18, when they sleepwalked through the third period, blowing a one-goal lead in an eventual 3-2 loss. The Lightning had not necessarily been playing well in the final period before that game, but for many players, that loss stuck in their craw; they were embarrassed.
“You have some new guys and sometimes that belief needs to be learned through that experience,” captain Steven Stamkos said. “But for the most part, the core guys are the same. So sometimes it’s just you need a reminder, things not to go right to just kick-start something.”
The Lightning will admit that they treat the regular season as a dress rehearsal. They aren’t preoccupied with seedings or division titles, but on a game-to-game basis, they admit they can get caught looking ahead.
“We’ve played so many meaningful hockey games in the last few years that at the beginning of the year, sometimes it’s hard just to focus on the moment when you’re looking at, ‘Hey, we want to get back to the playoffs. We want to get back to those games that are super intense, and everything’s on the line.’ ” Stamkos said.
So even for a team with so much experience pulling out wins late, do the Lightning have to learn how to win those kind of games again? Tampa Bay certainly has had to restructure its lineup, from filling three open spots along the blue line, including the departed Ryan McDonagh, to Ondrej Palat’s spot on the top scoring line. There also has been tinkering on both special teams units.
“I think the biggest thing to take from that and what we were kind of learning at the beginning of the season is you can’t just rely on that feeling (that you’re going to win) and expect it to happen,” forward Nick Paul said. “You have to go out there and do it. And I think at the beginning, we weren’t really creating that energy for ourselves. We were just kind of expecting it to happen and then frustration takes over.”
“Now it’s, ‘OK, we’ve got that feeling.’ We know we’re going to come back, but now we execute it,” he added. “We put the work in, we’re winning battles. We’re doing all the little things that help us win.”
The Lightning enter Saturday’s home game against Buffalo 5-1-1 since that loss to the Flyers, a stretch that includes a bevy of late-game heroics. They rallied in the third period to win games at Florida in overtime on Oct. 21 and against Ottawa on Tuesday. On Oct. 26, the Lightning went into the final period tied in Anaheim and won 4-2, and in their next game in San Jose, they won on Nikita Kucherov’s goal with 52 seconds remaining after surrendering a one-goal lead in the third.
“It’s getting it across to the guys that you’re not going to have to lead all the time,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Whether it’s the first or third period, you shouldn’t have to really change the way you play. ... We’ve seen growth here the last few weeks.”
Tuesday’s win over Ottawa is an interesting example. The Senators had just eight shots on goal going into the third, but led 2-1. The Lightning had some shoddy power-play work, including allowing a 5-on-3 shorthanded goal, and sloppy turnovers that led to 2-on-0 breakaways. Inside the locker room before the third period, Stamkos said the talk was on correcting those mistakes and taking two points.
“There’s going to be some nights where you play a great team and they’re on their game and you just tip your cap,” Stamkos said. “Those are the ones you can live with.
“The ones that you can’t live with are the ones where you’re playing well and then it’s a mental mistake or a turnover or something that is easily correctable. And that’s when we get into trouble a little bit. And that’s when we need to rein it in.”
