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Game 2 is Lightning's head game (with video)

 
"Is our thought process, 'Oh my gosh, we threw our best shot at them and we didn't beat them, so we're going to pick up our ball and go home?' No,'' Jon Cooper said. "We'll be ready, swinging for the fences (Saturday).'' [DIRK SHADD | Times]
"Is our thought process, 'Oh my gosh, we threw our best shot at them and we didn't beat them, so we're going to pick up our ball and go home?' No,'' Jon Cooper said. "We'll be ready, swinging for the fences (Saturday).'' [DIRK SHADD | Times]
Published April 18, 2015

BRANDON

Win or lose, the routine is typically the same for NHL coaches after the game.

Grab a bite to eat, maybe knock back a cold beverage (or two, depending on the result) and, at some point before the next day's practice, dissect the videotape of the game just played.

The Lightning's Jon Cooper and the Red Wings' Mike Babcock both did just that in the 12 hours or so between Detroit's 3-2 victory in Game 1 of their opening-round playoff series Thursday night and each team's practice Friday afternoon.

Both men watched the same game and saw the same thing: a Lightning team that thoroughly dominated play — puck possession, zone time, shots on goal. Yet, it's fair to say that Cooper and Babcock had a much different perspective about what they saw.

"I like having three and the other team having two,'' Babcock said of the goal totals.

Cooper, after seeing the tape, said: "It was still brutal. When I finished the game, we still lost.''

That doesn't mean Babcock is totally content and Cooper is looking to reinvent the wheel. Just the opposite. Babcock insisted his Red Wings must be better, and Cooper was sticking with his story.

"If we can put forth that kind of effort, we're going to take our chances with our team,'' Cooper said.

But you can't help but wonder where the Lightning's collective head is for this afternoon's suddenly critical Game 2.

After all, Tampa Bay did pretty much everything it wanted to do in Game 1. It limited Detroit to a mere 14 shots and maybe a handful of good scoring chances. At the other end, the offense unleashed a barrage of shots on Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek, 46 in all.

The Lightning was the better team at both ends of the ice. By a lot. And it still wasn't good enough.

That's got to get into your head, doesn't it?

"Is our thought process, 'Oh my gosh, we threw our best shot at them and we didn't beat them, so we're going to pick up our ball and go home?' No,'' Cooper said. "We'll be ready, swinging for the fences (today).''

You hear it all the time, that the playoffs aren't always about winning games but how you react after losses, how you deal with shifts in momentum, how you respond when things go wrong.

You're going to lose. You're going to face adversity. You're going to have games that you really can't afford to lose if you hope to advance. The Stanley Cup playoffs are as much a mental test as a physical grind.

Yet the Lightning is in a weird spot. Usually after a loss, a team tends to have something specific to address. Maybe the coach can ask for more effort or more intensity or more discipline or better attention to details.

Sure, Lightning goalie Ben Bishop gave up a softie goal and the power play isn't clicking just right, but Cooper probably stood in front of his players Friday, shrugged and told them to pretty much do what they did Thursday night.

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But if that effort wasn't good enough Thursday, don't you think that deep down the Lightning wonders if it will be good enough today? Throw into the mix a talented Detroit team that figures to play much better than it did in Game 1 and you have to have a Lightning team that might be squeezing its sticks a little tighter in Game 2.

Yikes, imagine what might happen if the Red Wings grab an early lead today.

"The one thing we talked about is we've lost games like this, where we felt we were the better team and we lost the game,'' Cooper said. "But we've also won games the way Detroit has. … What comes around, goes around. That happens during the regular season.''

Cooper is right. That does happen during the regular season, and things tend to even out over its 82 games. The issue here is that the Lightning doesn't have 81 more games for the hockey gods to make sure everyone gets his fair share. A playoff series can end long before everything evens out.

"There's no question (that's true),'' Cooper said. "And if it turns out that they get to four (wins) before we do, well, probably somebody really stuck out on their team and won it for them. That's why it's not a one-game event. It's a best-of-seven.

"It's unfortunate we could not pull (out) a game when we felt we had the upper hand. But we've proven to ourselves when we do the right things (we've shown) what we can accomplish.''

Cooper is right about that, too. The Lightning does have a knack for chucking away bad losses. It was the only team in the NHL not to lose three games in a row in the regular season.

"We can't sit here and say we don't know how to react in this situation,'' Cooper said. "I guess we'll see (today), but I have complete confidence that our guys are going to bring it. These guys have done a lot of winning together.''

The Lighting needs to get together and do some winning. Like right away. Like today.

Otherwise, it might be staring at its first three-game losing streak of the season at the time of year when three-game losing streaks pretty much end your season.

And that would be a brutal videotape to review.