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Something to prove: Better than ever, Bolts seek playoff redemption

Something to prove: Better than ever, Bolts seek playoff redemption

There was nothing he could do.

In the regular season, Ben Bishop had played so well, he was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy. The Tampa Bay Lightning had gone 3-0-1 against the Montreal Canadiens. But Bishop was injured and Anders Lindback was in goal as the Bolts faced the Habs in the first round of the 2014 playoffs.

Bishop watched a game in the press box. He watched another in a suite. He watched another underneath the stands.

“I was trying to change the luck last year,” Bishop said. “So I watched everywhere.”

It didn’t work. The Bolts got swept.

The lesson was simple: No matter what happens in the regular season, it can come undone quickly in the playoffs thanks to injuries, bounces, whatever. It had to be sickening for the Lightning to watch defenseman Jason Garrison and winger Cedric Paquette suffer injuries Saturday in a 4-0 loss to the Detroit Red Wings. Garrison’s was bad; he’s out three to four weeks. Paquette’s looked bad but shouldn’t cost him much time, if any.

This team should have good reason to think it can go deep in the playoffs this year. The Bolts entered Monday night’s game in Montreal with a chance to set the franchise record for wins with 47. They won 46 games last season, as well as in 2010-11 when they went to the Eastern Conference final and in 2003-04 when they captured the Stanley Cup.

Steven Stamkos ranks among the NHL's goal leaders, but he's not on Tampa Bay's most productive line. (Getty)
Steven Stamkos ranks among the NHL's goal leaders, but he's not on Tampa Bay's most productive line. (Getty)

They match up well with their most likely first- and second-round opponents. They entered Monday night 4-0-0 against the Canadiens this season, making last year’s playoff sweep seem fluky, and 3-1-0 against the Wings. They’re 1-1-1 against the Boston Bruins but won the last meeting, 5-3, and face them in the regular-season finale.

Though Bishop won’t be a Vezina finalist again, he’s healthy and has a talented backup in Andrei Vasilevskiy. If there is a concern, it’s experience. Bishop has played one playoff game as a pro – in 2010-11 with the AHL’s Peoria Rivermen. Vasilevskiy has played only 15 NHL games, period. His only pro playoff experience came last season in 18 games with the KHL’s Salavat Yulayev.

The defense is better – “that alone is night and day from last year,” said coach Jon Cooper – at least if Garrison and Braydon Coburn can play and play well. General manager Steve Yzerman added Garrison and Anton Stralman in the off-season and Coburn before the trade deadline. Only now Garrison is out, and Coburn has been out for eight games and counting.

The Bolts are better up front, too. Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat were finalists for the Calder Trophy last season and finished behind only the Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon for rookie of the year. Nikita Kucherov joined their line this season. Kucherov was a healthy scratch for two playoff games last season because he was too focused on scoring, but he committed to completing his game. Now the Bolts have the “Triplets,” one of the best lines in the league – and Steven Stamkos isn’t even on it. They’re all small and short on playoff experience, but as Cooper likes to say, they’re like gnats. They keep buzzing.

“That line has obviously found a lot of chemistry,” said Stamkos, the Lightning captain, tied for second in the NHL in goals with 40. “They know where each other are. They make it look easy sometimes. They’ve been a big part of our success.”

Now consider that Ryan Callahan, a deadline acquisition last year, has had a full season in Tampa Bay. Now consider the addition of Brian Boyle, a big, two-way, bottom-six centerman.

The most impressive thing about the Lightning? Maybe the best sign for the playoffs? They’re the highest-scoring team in the NHL (3.18 goals per game) even though they rank only 20th on the power play (17.7 percent). That tells you how well they generate offense 5-on-5, and that’s how you need to generate offense when penalties aren’t called quite the same way and opponents’ penalty-killing units study you more closely. The Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings all have won the Cup recently with unproductive power plays.

Down the stretch and into the playoffs last year, Cooper worried a lot about matchups. Not anymore.

“I think we focused a little bit too much on what other teams were doing as opposed to what we were doing, and that’s reversed for me this year,” Cooper said. “I don’t really care about what the other team’s doing anymore. It’s always been a philosophy of mine. Bobby Knight once said, ‘Just worry about what you do. Perfect your game plan. Make everybody come after you, adapt to what you have to do.’ Last year for whatever reason, I strayed from that. That was probably a mistake.”

The key, though, is the roster.

“We’re deeper,” he said. “I don’t as a coach feel like I have to match lines as much anymore. I can put Boyle’s line out versus whatever line and not even really lose sleep about it. So that’s, I guess, the difference. Just more confidence in the group we have.”

There should be a lot of confidence, provided the Lightning avoids more injury problems. Bishop is 20-7-2 in his last 29 decisions even though he has lost back-to-back games. The Bolts hadn’t lost three in a row all season entering Monday night’s game against the Habs.

Bishop thought back to last year. He looked ahead. He knocked on wood.

“I was super-excited to play against them,” Bishop said. “So it was more frustrating knowing I had a really good track record against them and felt really good against them and didn’t get a chance to do it in the playoffs. When it happened, you can’t do anything about it. I’ve got to wait for this year. Hopefully …”

Pause.

“There’s still six games left,” he said. “I’m not going to look too far ahead, because I know what can happen.”

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