Early exit means Lightning will get rest, time to retool for next year

TAMPA — The Lightning find themselves in an unfamiliar position this time of the year, on the outside of the playoffs looking in.

Each of the previous three years, the Lightning played in the final game of the season. Now, after their first-round playoff exit, they have six more weeks than usual to rest and prepare for 2023-24.

“I wish it wasn’t a full offseason,” captain Steven Stamkos said. “But when you look at it, it is going to be beneficial for our group, for sure. You have some time to actually relax and get your head cleared, get your body feeling good again before you get back into that routine of the gym and on the ice. So, we have to try to find the positive out of that, and that’s probably the biggest one.”

The Lightning played more hockey than any other team over the past three seasons, and at some point it was going to catch up with them. Entering last year’s Stanley Cup final, they had won 11 straight playoff series. In some of those series, they were the dominant team; in others, they found ways to win.

Since then, they’ve lost their past two postseason series, including last season’s Cup final against Colorado. Five losses in the past two series came in overtime, including all three home games this year against Toronto.

“(The Maple Leafs) just did a better job of taking advantage of their opportunities, taking advantage of their breaks versus the job we did taking advantage of our breaks,” general manager Julien BriseBois said.

The Lightning will have plenty of time to ponder their missed opportunities this offseason. They played well enough in many ways to beat the Maple Leafs, but blown third-period leads at home in Games 3 and 4 came back to haunt them.

“I thought we played as well as we could for 95% of that series,” Stamkos said. “There was some lapses, for sure, that ended up costing us, especially Games 3 and 4 at home. I thought those were missed opportunities for our group, whereas in the past, maybe we don’t let that slip. And that can be the difference between playing a week and a half (in the postseason) or playing a couple of months, so that that’s a tough one to swallow.”

It was a reminder that there’s a fine line between playing in the Cup final and exiting in the first round.

“It’s a hell of a league,” coach Jon Cooper said.” It’s really hard to win in. But in this (locker) room, with this group, the standard is so high that this doesn’t feel good. We’re not a group that’s like, ‘Oh, we made the playoffs. Great. We played admirably but lost out. Great. Pat on the back.’ That’s not the way this organization’s rolled for the last decade.

Stay updated on Tampa Bay’s sports scene

Subscribe to our free Sports Today newsletter

We’ll send you news and analysis on the Bucs, Lightning, Rays and Florida’s college football teams every day.

Loading...

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

“It just seems with the guys that there’s still that kind of empty feeling. And it sucks, but you want that in your players because you know they care. And I think if you watched our team play, especially in the playoffs, this team cared. They just couldn’t get it done.”

As much as winning in the postseason is about getting contributions across the lineup, a team’s stars have to lead the way. And the Lightning’s best scorers struggled in this postseason, particularly Brayden Point, who scored 51 goals in the regular season, and past postseason star Nikita Kucherov. Both failed to score in 5-on-5 play against the Maple Leafs.

“You’re put out there to produce,” Point said. “You look at what (Toronto’s) guys did, and they got the job done, and we didn’t. And I think that’s the hardest part about the series is just knowing that you didn’t get it done. But you move forward, I guess. … It’s tough.”

Cooper said Tuesday that of the messages he received from fellow coaches and executives in the days following his team’s loss, there was one repetitive theme: “Get away from the game and rest. You need it.”

“Rest is a weapon,” defenseman Mikhail Sergachev said. “But obviously you want to keep playing. You want to win Cups, but you can’t win them all, I guess. For me, it’s best to get rested, because we’ve played a lot of hockey in the last six years that I’ve been here, so it’s going to be good for guys.”

BriseBois hasn’t had this much time to prepare for a season in several years, and he will need it. Though he has been able to keep a top-heavy payroll intact throughout a flat salary cap era, he said this offseason will be his toughest challenge yet because he has more holes to fill.

After signing forward Mikey Eyssimont, who could have been an unrestricted free agent, to a two-year, $1.6 million deal Friday, the Lightning have 16 players under contract for next season, as eight-year extensions for young core players Sergachev, forward Anthony Cirelli and defenseman Erik Cernak kick in. Forwards Alex Killorn, Corey Perry and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare; defenseman Ian Cole; and goaltender Brian Elliott can be unrestricted free agents in July, and the cap could go up by just $1 million to $83.5 million.

BriseBois said he has reached out to agents for all the Lightning’s remaining unrestricted free agents and would spend the weekend in Syracuse, home of Tampa Bay’s AHL affiliate, meeting with the team’s pro scouts and minor-league coaches.

“I think the difference is usually we’ve been very fortunate to get all the way to the end (of the season),” BriseBois said. “So we’ve had to do a lot of our planning as we were playing in later rounds. This year, we get to take a step back and debrief, go through maybe a more formal review of where we are as an organization, what we need to do going forward. And we’re going to take the time it’s allotted to us to do that. So, it is a little bit different.”

The Lightning don’t have a pick in next month’s draft until the sixth round and have just three picks in all. If older players such as Perry, Bellemare, Cole and Elliott aren’t in its plans, the organization will lean on its player development more than it has in recent years.

“Even though the flat salary cap levels the playing field every year, there are new teams that emerge as top contenders,” BriseBois said. “I fully expect us to remain one next year. And every decision that we’re going to make between now and the start of next season will be made with an eye towards making sure that we are a Stanley Cup contender and not only next year, but beyond. I do feel we have something special going on here. And we’re going to do everything we can to keep it going.”

Said Cooper, “As long as Jeff Vinik is the owner and Julien BriseBois is the GM, I would be excited about this organization every single year.”

Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow @EddieintheYard.

• • •

Sign up for Lightning Strikes, a weekly newsletter from Bolts beat writer Eduardo A. Encina that brings you closer to the ice.

Never miss out on the latest with the Bucs, Rays, Lightning, Florida college sports and more. Follow our Tampa Bay Times sports team on Twitter and Facebook.