Lightning’s chase for another Cup begins vs. Maple Leafs

Steven Stamkos and the Tampa Bay Lightning perceive the tough problem that lies forward for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.

The staff’s quest for a 3rd straight NHL title begins on the street Monday evening towards the Auston Matthews-led Toronto Maple Leafs, who had a terrific common season however have but to show they’ve what it takes to achieve success within the playoffs.

Whereas the Lightning’s expertise on hockey’s grandest stage has served them effectively throughout back-to-back championship runs, the Maple Leafs haven’t gained a playoff sequence since 2004. That is the first-ever postseason assembly between the Atlantic Division rivals.

“It’s been a long-time coming. We haven’t performed them. For me it’s not going to alter something. We’ve acquired a job to do and that’s to win some video games right here within the playoffs irrespective of the opponent,” mentioned Stamkos, who grew up simply outdoors of Toronto rooting for the Maple Leafs.

“For positive there’s going to be plenty of hype coming into this spherical. However our group is a mature group,” the Lightning captain added. “We all know the right way to deal with plenty of totally different conditions come playoff time, and we’ll need to lean on our expertise right here.”

With Matthews turning into the primary participant to attain 60 objectives in a season since Stamkos did it 10 years in the past, Toronto set membership information for victories (54) and factors (115), ending second within the Atlantic behind the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Florida Panthers.

Tampa Bay acquired a team-leading 42 objectives and 106 factors from the 32-year-old Stamkos and completed third within the division with 51 victories and 110 factors.

“You sit again, now we have an off day and say: ‘Wow, this staff gained 51 video games and that’s a hell of an accomplishment,’” Lightning coach Jon Cooper mentioned. “However it will likely be lengthy forgotten as soon as we head to Toronto as a result of it’s an entire totally different season now.”

Toronto’s playoff failures over the previous twenty years embrace squandering a 3-1 sequence lead towards Montreal within the opening spherical in 2021.

The staff returned this 12 months, decided to study from its errors and to not get caught up within the day after day highs and lows of the common season.

Or, lingering outdoors chatter about Toronto’s postseason futility.

“Everybody has expertise and learns from the previous, good or unhealthy,” Toronto captain John Tavares mentioned. “It’s a must to develop from that, whether or not it’s as a hockey participant and even as an individual.”

“There’s at all times matters of dialog floating round,” Matthews provided. “There’s solely a lot that we will management.”

The Maple Leafs embrace the problem of measuring their progress towards the two-time defending Cup champions, whose star-studded lineup contains Nikita Kucherov, Bryaden Level, Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy, the successful goaltender in each Tampa Bay playoff victory throughout its back-to-back run.

“We have now absolute respect for the Tampa Bay Lightning in what they’ve achieved and who they’re,” coach Sheldon Keefe mentioned. “But now we have nice perception in our personal group. We’re prepared for a battle.”

CHASING HISTORY

The Lightning try to change into the primary staff to win three consecutive Stanley Cup titles for the reason that New York Islanders gained 4 in a row from 1980-83.

TERRIFIC SEASON

The Maple Leafs set franchise information with 54 wins, which was 5 greater than the earlier greatest. They completed 115 factors, 10 greater than their earlier excessive and 7 behind the Atlantic Division-winning Panthers.

Matthews is the primary Toronto participant to attain at the least 50 objectives since 1993-94. He completed with a club-record 60 in 73 video games.

Goaltender Jack Campbell, in the meantime, was a first-time All-Star.

HEATING UP

The Lightning gained 5 of six video games down the stretch to enter the playoffs on slightly little bit of a roll, with Vasilevskiy ending with 39 wins — tied with Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky for essentially the most within the NHL.

MOVING ON

Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly mentioned teammates spoke lots over the summer season and into coaching camp about what occurred in final 12 months’s playoff, however didn’t harp on the topic.

“It’s slightly little bit of a balancing act … you wish to handle it and also you wish to study from it, however you additionally wish to transfer on,” Rielly mentioned.

“I don’t suppose that’s something that anybody in our room’s going to look again on fondly until we proper the ship and attain the last word objective,” he added. “We’ll hopefully be capable of look again and say, ‘You already know, that was a giant turning level for us.’ However till that occurs, you virtually wish to block it out and cope with it later.”

___

Extra AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

SHARE: