Lightning look to turn page, even series vs. Panthers

The Tampa Bay Lightning have lost home-ice advantage. Now they must find a way to ensure they do not head to the home of the defending Stanley Cup champions down by a pair of games in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series.

The Lightning, who finished four points ahead of the Florida Panthers in the regular season, are looking for a big response when they play host to their state rivals on Thursday in Game 2.

Florida recorded a decisive 6-2 road victory on Tuesday.

“A series isn’t won in one game, that’s a positive,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “In the end, we gave up six goals. We’re a pretty decent defensive team and we’re good on the PK, and we gave up three on that. We can sit here and dissect this game all we want; bottom line is we lost. We’ll turn the page and move on.”

There was no update on Wednesday regarding the availability of forward Anthony Cirelli, who left early in the second period in the series opener due to an undisclosed injury.

The Lightning have positives to use for confidence. For example, they held the Panthers to only 17 shots on goal. But the number of goals surrendered, especially while on the penalty kill, was far too much to overcome.

“We didn’t have a great start to the series, like we talked about, but like I said, it’s a series,” Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “We know we can be better, and we’ve got another level, and we’ll find a way to get to that.

“Any time you give up six it’s a tough feeling, especially in the playoffs. We’ve got full faith in this group, our coaching staff, everybody will look themselves in the mirror, and we’ve got to respond.”

The Panthers limped into the playoffs with only three victories in their final 10 games, but a huge part of those struggles were injuries and sitting out nicked-up players to ensure they were as healthy as possible when their championship defense began.

The biggest beneficiary of receiving as much time off as possible was forward Matthew Tkachuk, who missed the final two months due to a lower-body injury sustained in February during the 4 Nations Face-Off. He returned to action with a pair of goals in a three-point performance on Tuesday.

“That’s what you miss,” said Tkachuk, who has scored at least one goal in each of his last seven NHL games.

“You miss competing, you miss the fans, the energy, the emotion, the battles with the other team, the chirps on your own bench. It’s just so much stuff that you miss. I was just super grateful to be out there and loved every second of it.”

Certainly everything that could go right for the Panthers did in the series opener. Now to see whether they can duplicate that success.

“I’ll focus more on the first 30 minutes of that game for kind of answers to where the game goes next,” coach Paul Maurice said. “I’m not a huge believer in momentum. I’m really not. The puck drops and that’s your opportunity to change momentum. Both teams will look at the game and find things they can do better.”

This game will be the final one in the 20-game banishment that Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad was handed on March 10 for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA’s performance-enhancing substances program.

This season, Ekblad has played in 56 games, tallied 33 points (three goals, 30 assists) and, when suspended, he was leading the Panthers’ skaters in average time on ice (23:30). He has played in 732 career games and amassed 118 goals and 262 assists, adding four goals and 16 assists in 64 playoff appearances.

–Field Level Media