The Lightning’s Record-Setting Season Seeks a Stanley Cup Capper
TORONTO — The former N.H.L. executive Brian Burke sat high in the stands at Scotiabank Arena last Thursday watching the Tampa Bay Lightning practice ahead of a game against the Maple Leafs.
“They remind me of the Dallas Cowboys in their heyday,” said Burke, who won a Stanley Cup as general manager of the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. “No weaknesses and a lot of star power.”
Tampa Bay went on to beat Toronto that night, 3-1, and two days later, closed out the Boston Bruins, 6-3, for its record-tying 62nd win this season.
With a 62-16-4 record, the Lightning tied the 1995-96 Red Wings for the most wins in a season. And Tampa Bay, with 128 points, fell just short of one huge benchmark — the record 132 points achieved by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens (60-8-12), who were regarded as one of the best, if not the best, N.H.L. teams ever.
Tampa Bay finished with 12 more wins, and 21 more points, than the next closest team, the Calgary Flames. The Lightning did not lose more than two consecutive games all season.
But winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the best regular-season team is far from a guarantee of postseason success. The 1976-77 Canadiens won the Stanley Cup; the 1995-96 Red Wings did not.
On the 32 previous occasions that the Presidents’ Trophy has been awarded, only eight regular-season champions, or 25 percent, followed up with Stanley Cup titles. The last one was the Chicago Blackhawks in 2012-13.
The Lightning begin their first-round playoff series against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday well aware that history may regard them as a bust — or not regard them at all — if they don’t win a championship.
First-Round Playoff Matchups
Eastern Conference
Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Columbus Blue Jackets
Boston Bruins vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
Washington Capitals vs. Carolina Hurricanes
Islanders vs. Pittsburgh Penguins
Western Conference
Nashville Predators vs. Dallas Stars
Winnipeg Jets vs. St. Louis Blues
Calgary Flames vs. Colorado Avalanche
San Jose Sharks vs. Vegas Golden Knights
[The complete first-round schedule is here.]
The division-based playoff format, introduced for the 2013-14 season, does not help the Lightning’s cause.
Tampa Bay and Boston both play in the Atlantic Division and were the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. But one of them won’t get past the second round.
Lightning Coach Jon Cooper understands that success is often built on failure. Sometimes repeated failure. Under his tutelage, Tampa Bay advanced to three conference finals in the last four years and reached the Stanley Cup finals in 2015.
A dozen or so players are left from that 2014-15 team, which lost to the Blackhawks in six games. Back then, Cooper said, he struggled to stay positive as he exchanged handshakes with the winners.
In the handshake lineup was Scotty Bowman, a nine-time Stanley Cup winner as a coach and Chicago’s senior adviser of hockey operations.
Cooper will never forget what Bowman told him.
“You’ll be back soon,” said Bowman, who happens to have been the coach of the 1976-77 Canadiens and the 1995-96 Red Wings. “Don’t worry about it. I lost my first 12 Stanley Cup finals games.”
The Lightning lost the Eastern Conference finals in seven games the next year. Then last season Tampa Bay — already loaded with superstar talent in forwards Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and defenseman Victor Hedman — added what it thought were the final two pieces by acquiring defenseman Ryan McDonagh and forward J.T. Miller from the Rangers at the trade deadline.
But the Lightning lost to the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference finals in seven games.
In their first full season in Tampa Bay, McDonagh has had a resurgent season, ranking No. 2 in the league with a plus-38 rating, and Miller tallied 47 points.
“This is the effect you’re getting,” Cooper said. “A year later, when everybody is more comfortable, and they know what grocery store to go to, now they’re here just to play hockey. There are no other distractions, and we’re reaping the benefits of last year’s trade deadline.”
Other off-season adjustments have paid dividends.
Tampa Bay has No. 1-ranked power play and penalty killing units, but last season the Lightning were ranked 28th out of 31 teams in penalty killing efficiency.
Rick Bowness, who oversaw the defensive unit, was let go along with assistant coach Brad Lauer. Derek Lalonde was hired with Jeff Halpern to work with the forwards, and Todd Richards was hired to focus on the defense.
During a nine-game stretch in November, the Lightning gave up 13 power-play goals. Richards called a players meeting. The players took ownership of the problems and became more attentive to the “habit reminders” the coaches like to drill into them, like finishing their checks.
“It takes away holes in your game when you’re constantly doing things correctly,” Lalonde said.
Cooper saw signs that Kucherov, 25, was filling holes in his game this off-season, when he stayed in the Tampa area and rented a rink by himself so he could skate five days a week.
“His hockey mind is so elite and the physical side is catching up,” Cooper said.
Kucherov finished with 128 points, the most for a Russian player in N.H.L. history and the most for a league scoring champion since Mario Lemieux’s 161 in the 1995-96 season. He is the favorite to win the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player.
Kucherov’s emergence has taken the pressure off Stamkos, 29, to be the dominant star. Stamkos responded by surpassing the 40-goal mark for the first time since 2014-15, and he hit a career high with 98 points. Kucherov, who is sneaky quick with the puck and makes good reads, also helped center Brayden Point score a career-high 41 goals.
Leading them all is Cooper, 51. Bowman, who follows the Lightning closely from his home in Sarasota, Fla., traces the team’s success to 2011-12, when Cooper showed an ability to put teams on a roll and keep them there.
He led the Norfolk Admirals, the Lightning’s American Hockey League affiliate at the time, to a record 28-game winning streak that culminated in a Calder Cup championship.
In March 2013, the Lightning promoted Cooper, who was a public defender in Michigan before making coaching his career. He has perfected the art of persuasion and negotiation with his players.
“He just has that balance in today’s N.H.L.,” said Lalonde, one of Cooper’s assistants. “He can be hard on players, but he cares about them too. The guys know he has their back.”
Cooper has claimed championships in the A.H.L. and in three junior hockey leagues. A Silver Cup. A Robertson Cup. A Clark Cup. A Calder Cup.
The Stanley Cup has eluded him, but this year, just maybe, it could be Cooper’s turn.
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