TAMPA, Fla. — As the Lightning slowly skated off the ice one by one Wednesday night, there were some unfamiliar sounds coming from the Amalie Arena rafters.
Boos.
Not a ton, not overwhelming by any stretch. But they were there, no doubt from coming from the more anxious and angry of the 19,092 that witnessed the Lightning stunningly blow a three-goal lead to drop Game 1 of their Eastern Conference playoff series to Columbus, 4-3.
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Yes, the NHL-record-tying, 62-win Lightning continued to make history. It was the first time they’ve ever blown a three-goal lead in a playoff game. The first time they’ve blown a three-goal lead at all since Dec. 18, 2015, against the Capitals. Yeah, you remember those guys.
Coach Jon Cooper started the day posing for a picture with Hall of Famer Scotty Bowman, holding the commemorative puck from Saturday’s win No. 62. Hours later, Cooper and his players were fielding questions on whether this was a “wake-up” call for arguably the best team in the salary cap era.
“Guys should be mad,” captain Steven Stamkos said. “It’s not going to be easy this time of year. We’ve been in this position before many times, our core group.
“But when you’ve got a 3-0 lead at home in the playoffs, that should be done an over with. If anything, we learned a lesson. We’ll be a lot better Friday.”
They’d better be.
There wasn’t any panic in the Lightning room, as expected. It’s a veteran-laden group, which has battle scars from three lengthy playoff runs in the last four years. It’s the first game of a seven-game series that they’re still expected to win.
But let’s not sugarcoat it. This was unacceptable for a team this good to surrender a three-goal, second-period lead. They were up two with 15 minutes left, playing in front of arguably the best goalie in the world.
What happened? It was a combination of factors. But it wasn’t a situation where Columbus goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stole the game, or the Blue Jackets beat up Tampa Bay. If anything, the Blue Jackets were smarter and opportunistic.
The Lightning got a bit greedy, trying to go for the fourth and fifth goal rather than protecting the lead they had. They had bad puck management. And their best players were surprisingly the culprits in Columbus’ comeback.
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Their two top defensemen, Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh, had turnovers that led to goals. Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov were kept off the scoresheet and finished a combined minus-3. When mentioned to Cooper that they both came up short, he only said, “Yeah, they did.” The Lightning’s stout special teams, boasting top-ranked power play and penalty kill in the regular season, faltered, giving up a short-handed goal and power play goal.
The collapse was a team effort. And not so complicated.
The turning point
The Lightning were rolling in the first period. They were taking it to the Blue Jackets, with the third line of Alex Killorn, Anthony Cirelli and J.T. Miller driving play. The fourth line of Adam Erne-Cedric Paquette-Mathieu Joseph was a pain in the ass. Killorn scored a short-handed breakaway goal, Cirelli scored on a rebound and Yanni Gourde added a slick deflection and it was 3-0.
It was like watching the Lightning’s season highlight reel condensed to 20 minutes.
Then Tampa Bay had a power play sandwiched between late in the first and early in the second.
“We had a chance to bury them,” Stamkos said.
They nearly did. Stamkos fed Kucherov with a cross-crease pass, and the Art Ross Trophy winner usually buries it. If he does, it’s 4-0 and it’s likely game over. But Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, oh so shaky in the first period, slid over to make the save.
‘It Gave Them Life’
The Lightning might have lost the game in the third period, but they lost their momentum in the second. The Blue Jackets began to find their game, and their confidence, partly because of some sloppy puck management by Tampa Bay.
“Our mentality has to be we have to shut teams down, not add to the lead,” Cooper said. “That first goal against was a perfect example of trying to get the extra one when we didn’t really need the extra one. We need to not give up the next one and we did.
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“And it gave them life.”
The goal came midway through the second period, with the Lightning holding the puck in the Columbus zone. McDonagh had the puck down low in the right circle and tried to thread a pass to a streaking Erik Cernak, who was coming in from the blueline.
Turnover. Breakaway by Nick Foligno and it was in the back of the net. Columbus was back in the game.
“We didn’t manage the puck well, obviously,” McDonagh said. “It doesn’t matter who you play against, that’s a great team over there.
“We definitely took our foot off the gas pedal a little bit. We can’t afford to do that. We need to play all 60 minutes.”
Hedman: ‘I need to be better’
One of the biggest questions heading into this series was the health of Hedman, the reigning Norris Trophy winner who missed the final four regular-season games with an upper-body injury.
Whether it was a concussion or not, nobody said. But when Hedman returned to practices both Monday and Tuesday, declaring himself good to go and “feeling fresh,” it was a significant boost.
Hedman logged 25-plus minutes Wednesday in his usual role, but this was far from a typical game for one of the league’s best defenseman. On Columbus’ second goal, by David Savard, Hedman turned the puck over trying to send the puck through the neutral zone, then got turned inside out on a slick move by the Columbus defenseman.
“I’m disappointed with myself, especially that second goal,” Hedman said. “I’ve got to make a better play. They got momentum out of it. I expect myself to be a lot better Friday.”
Shaky special teams
Even then, with a one-goal lead, the Lightning could have pulled away in taking advantage of a four-minute power play midway through the third period.
But Tampa Bay’s top-ranked power play couldn’t muster much, then turned it over in the offensive zone. Columbus’ Josh Anderson took it the other way off the rush and converted. Tie game.
“We’ve got to play the right way,” Stamkos said. “It’s playoff hockey, not pond hockey out there. We’ve got to get back to that mentality. When we have a lead, it should be automatic come playoff time. We’ve done it and shown it in the past.”
It’s time to show it now.
The Lightning have lost Game 1 in seven playoff series under Cooper. They’re 4-3 in those series. But they’re 4-1 when they win Game 2, 0-2 when they don’t. As Cooper said Wednesday morning, “The one thing is with Game 1, you’re not going to lose a series whether you win or lose that game. But it can help dictate where you’re going to go in that series.”
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Where the Lightning is going now is finally feeling some pressure. They haven’t played for anything in a while, having wrapped up the Presidents’ Trophy a month ago. Sure, there were emotional games, big wins like over the defending Cup champion Capitals. But that was the regular season. The playoffs are a whole different animal.
The Lightning have to turn the page on this one. Maybe they’ll make some subtle lineup changes, like inserting veteran wing Ryan Callahan or defenseman Braydon Coburn, a healthy scratch in Game 1. But Tampa Bay gave Columbus some life. And that can be a dangerous thing. Former Avalanche star Claude Lemeiux told our Pierre LeBrun, when they beat the loaded 1995 Red Wings in the conference final, they just needed to steal one in Detroit. They won the first two.
“Starting on the road. You have less pressure,” Lemieux told LeBrun. “Everything they did all year can be wiped away in a sense by losing one home game in the playoffs.
“The team that’s won 62 games doesn’t lose at home. That’s a lot of pressure, if you look at it, to live with. The underdog team just has to win one road game. Just that alone is always a big thing.’’
How big was this one win by Columbus? We’ll find out soon enough.
— Greg Auman of The Athletic contributed to this story.
(Top photo of Steven Stamkos: Chris O’Meara / Associated Press)
