DENVER ā Minutes after losing Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in overtime, Patrick Maroon scoffed at the idea that it was some sort of gut punch to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
āTwo really good teams going at it,ā he said. āThatās Game 1. We just got to refocus and be ready for Game 2.ā
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Few teams in recent NHL history are better at doing that, which is why the Lightning are unfazed about trailing the Colorado Avalanche. The two-time defending champions have won 11 consecutive series since their remarkable postseason run began in 2020; in five of them, Tampa has lost the opener -- including twice this postseason -- and the experience has steeled them for situations just like this.
āItās not about riding the wave of one game,ā coach Jon Cooper said Thursday. āItās kind of about getting our feet under us. Itās understanding weāre playing a different team. We canāt win the series all in one game, and (players have) been really good at that.ā
Players wasted no time in moving on to Game 2 on Saturday night. Tampa Bay, after all, had roared back from a 3-1 first-period deficit to tie the opener before Andre Burakovsky's overtime winner. Elements from successful stretches of Game 1 can factor into the teamās tweaks and changes moving forward.
āWeāve done a great job of making adjustments after losses, so weāll look to do that,ā captain Steven Stamkos said. āThe mindset is weāre here to win a series and you donāt know when thatās going to come: four games, five, six, seven. You never know.ā
The Lightning have over the past three postseasons won series in all those combinations. But it wasnāt long ago that they were on the wrong side of a stunning defeat.
Itās hard to forget Tampa Bay getting swept in the first round by Columbus in 2019 after steamrolling the rest of the league all season and winning the Presidentsā Trophy with the best overall record. The adjustments, absent any panic moves like firing Cooper or breaking up the core, paved the way for this run.
The memory of that series and the 11 since that ended with them on the smiling side of the handshake line combines to give the Lightning the perspective they have today.
āThatās the great thing about our group: There arenāt many situations that we havenāt been in,ā longtime winger Alex Killorn said. āIt feels like weāve seen it all. Weāre not worried. Weāre confident going forward. But thereās definitely a lot more work to be done.ā
That includes trying to figure out how to slow down the speedy Avalanche, who want to turn games into track meets and use their offensive talent to pump in goals. Despite not getting past the second round the past four years, Colorado also has plenty of playoff experience and knows to expect a major pushback from the champs in Game 2.
Coach Jared Bednar believes the best way to handle that is for his team to keep playing its style.
āRegardless of how Tampa plays, we have a certain identity that we need to play to to be successful,ā Bednar said. āWeāve learned that during the course of this season, especially. And then for me, itās just managing those momentum swings.ā
Tampa Bay is the first team since Wayne Gretzkyās Edmonton Oilers in the mid-1980s to reach the final three years in a row and is four victories away from the leagueās first three-peat since the New York Islanders dynasty of the early ā80s. Cooper has managed to keep his playersā emotions in check so much that defenseman Mikhail Sergachev called the 1-0 deficit āthe usual stuff.ā
As unusual as it was for Tampa Bay to fall behind 2-0 last round against the New York Rangers, the Avalanche present a different challenge behind their high-end talent. While the Lightning will need to improve their play, most notably how they start, their mentality is now their biggest advantage.
āThatās taken some time for us to kind of fall into that mindset, but weāve really developed that over the years,ā Cooper said. āHopefully one more series we can carry that through and take another step forward.ā
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Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
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