Burns: 3 Things we learned from a 3-1 series lead

When does a 6-2 playoff victory and a 3-1 lead in a First Round series versus your hated in-state rival leave you with an empty feeling after?
When your superstar right winger and your gifted young defenseman both leave the ice in the third period due to injury and don't return.
Tampa Bay took command of its series against the Panthers in Game 4 at AMALIE Arena, breaking out to a 3-1 lead by the first intermission despite uneven play in the opening period, adding to the advantage with two power-play goals in a dominant second period and seeing the victory over the finish line in the third game when the game dissolved into something other than hockey with questionable hits, post-whistle antics and the hatred both teams feel for one another coming to the forefront.
"The hockey game ended about halfway through the second," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said post game. "Turned into something much different."

Tampa Bay won its first playoff contest at AMALIE Arena since Game 5 of the 2018 Eastern Conference Final versus Washington, ending a four-game losing skid at its home rink. The Lightning went 8-4 in "home" games during their run to a Stanley Cup in 2020 playing in Toronto and Edmonton bubbles.
The Bolts continued their impressive streak of not allowing one loss to turn into two in the playoffs, the Lightning winning their eighth straight in playoff games following defeat (they went 7-0 in games following a loss in the 2020 Playoffs).
Aside for one bad period in Game 3 on Thursday, we could be talking about a Lightning sweep of Florida by the time Game 4 was over.
The concern, however, is for Nikita Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev, who both exited in the third and didn't come back. Kucherov was slashed in the knee by Anthony Duclair on a power play. Sergachev took a shoulder-to-shoulder hit into the wall from Patric Hornqvist. Both plays came with the outcome long since decided.
So, the Lightning should feel good about the lead they've build for themselves through four games of the First Round. They've never lost a playoff series when up 3-1. But there's still a cloud of negativity that hangs over the victory considering what it might have cost.

1. AN UNSATISFYING 3-1 LEAD AFTER ONE
Tampa Bay netted the opening goal three minutes into the contest when Alex Killorn sent a pass up ahead into the path of Anthony Cirelli, springing him on a breakaway which Cirelli converted for his second goal in as many games.
Yanni Gourde made it 2-0 Lightning on an unreal tip at the net off of Nikita Kucherov's shot from the point.
Florida got a goal back on the power play, but the Lightning re-established their two-goal cushion late in the opening frame on another tip at the net, this time Ondrej Palat getting a piece of Erik Cernak's shot to send a puck past Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky and send the Bolts into the locker room up 3-1.
Yet, there wasn't a whole lot to like about the Lightning's play in the first period, except the score.
Tampa Bay was sloppy with the puck throughout the period. Breaking the puck out of their own end was an adventure, and not the fun kind. Andrei Vasilevskiy was under considerable duress in the first, but the Lightning goalie was more than up to the challenge in Game 4 after, for him, a substandard performance in Game 3.
Heading into the locker room after 20 minutes, the Lightning knew they had better in them.
And they held a multi-goal lead too.
"We didn't play our best in the first," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. "Vasy made some big saves to keep us in the game. We had some good looks and we beared down and scored a couple goals. Thought that second period was very good until we ran into some penalty trouble. I thought we responded well in the second and killed off most of the penalties and did a good job on the PK and Vasy made some unreal saves. We're up 3-1 and one more to go."
Florida more than doubled the Lightning for shots in the first period 15 to 7. The Panthers had the majority of the puck possession, an issue that's plagued the Bolts throughout this First Round series.
But the Lightning were opportunistic on their chances, scoring three times on their seven shots.
Florida had to feel pretty good about the way it came out for Game 4.
The Panthers certainly weren't feeling good about trailing by two, however, and that had to weigh on them mentally.
"We had way better in us. We knew it," Cooper said. "The fact we were up 3-1, we didn't like the way we were losing battles down low and weren't kind of with our scheme and the way we wanted to break out and they were kind of on us a little bit. The period break was timely. We got to make a few adjustments and then we got those goals. Give Florida a little credit, they were pressing but we weathered it and did what we had to do to get the lead."

2. SOMETHING MUCH DIFFERENT
Jon Cooper was measured in his post-game comments to media following the Game 4 win.
But it was pretty clear the Lightning bench boss had more he wanted to say but thought better of it.
Once the Lightning took a 5-1 lead 7:15 into the middle frame on the second of Alex Killorn's two goals, the game took an ugly turn. Tampa Bay was in complete control and was going to come out of Game 4 with a victory barring a catastrophic collapse.
But the Panthers didn't seem to be all that concerned with trying to complete a historic comeback. Their game turned to a series of questionable hits and runs at the Bolts that made a mess of the contest, or "something much different" as Cooper said after the game.
And the referees did nothing to police the action, instead encouraging the play to devolve with the inconsistency in the calls they made.
For example, following a whistle Erik Cernak put his arm around the neck of Patric Hornqvist while exchanging words, a rather tame encounter considering the level of animosity we've seen between the two teams through the first four games of the series. But Cernak was whistled for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, putting the Lightning on the penalty kill, a place they don't want to be in this series because of how dangerous Florida's power play can be.
Later, Nikita Kucherov got a breakaway, was pushed from behind by MacKenzie Weegar into goalie Chris Driedger, who entered after Bobrovsky gave up the fifth goal. Kucherov and Driedger collided heads and remaining down on the ice for a bit while being attended to.
The penalty signaled? Interference on the goaltender by Kucherov, an incensed crowd voicing their displeasure at the curious call.
That the Lightning only gave up one power play goal over the second half of the second period when they were whistled for four infractions and sent Florida on three power plays spoke to how well the penalty kill held up while being called on repeatedly.
"We had to weather our emotions, there's no doubt," Cooper started during a lengthy diatribe in which he chose his words carefully. "And, when you're being told by the officials, when our players are being told, 'Don't do anything stupid. We're going to get you,' so we don't do anything stupid and the other team's getting rewarded for it, I just don't get it. It's just frustrating because people are coming to watch a really intense good hockey game. You're looking for a hockey game and liberties are being taken. Don't get me wrong. We're not angels out there. I'm not sitting here saying that. Far from it. But when there's a standard set and we're being told things are going to be called and when it doesn't get done then there's just confusion. I'll give our guys a ton of credit for sticking with it and battling through whether it was the embellishments or the non call after non call after non call and then having it go maybe not the way we wanted. Did we earn some of our penalties? There is no question we did. I'm not saying that. But I will give kudos to our guys for sticking with it."
Nikita Kucherov tacked on a goal 4:47 into the third period on a power play, effectively ending any Florida hopes of a miraculous comeback.
But the antics from the Panthers didn't stop - more on that later - and the third period became a test for the Lightning to see if they could keep their heads when the Panthers seemed to be losing theirs.
"I think you've got to ask the other team that, if they were out for anything else," Hedman responded when asked if the Panthers had ulterior motives in the third period. "There were some plays that happened during the game, but I thought we did a good job controlling our emotions for most of the night. It's the playoffs. Stuff's going to happen. It's about how you react. We won the game, so that's all that matters and looking forward to next game."

3. CONCERN FOR KUCHEROV AND SERGACHEV
What you didn't want to see happen in the third period did happen when Nikita Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev both left the ice in considerable pain when the outcome of the game had already been decided.
Kucherov was slashed in the knee by Florida's Anthony Duclair on a power play, the puck well up ice by the time Duclair took a whack at Kucherov's limb, leaving him crumpled on the ice. The arena went silent while Kucherov was being attended to by head athletic trainer Tom Mulligan. The Russian winger didn't play the entire regular season following offseason hip surgery but has been sensational since his return for Game 1 of the playoffs. He's recorded a point in every game of the First Round and leads the Lightning for scoring with nine points, one point away from matching his own franchise record for scoring in a playoff series set twice previously, the last time in the 2020 Eastern Conference Final.
Kucherov came off the ice under his own power but didn't put much weight on his left leg. He sat on a stool behind the bench for a while but eventually made his way down the tunnel to the room with about six minutes to go and wasn't seen again.
When PA announcer Paul Porter announced Kucherov as the game's No. 1 star, the right winger didn't come out on the ice to acknowledge the crowd.
Cooper didn't offer an update on Kucherov's status following the game.
"When you see him go down and he stays down, it's very concerning," Alex Killorn said. "I didn't see the play or whatever happen, but when you see a guy like that, guys on our team aren't going to stay down unless they're actually hurt. But with him, hopefully he's going to be okay. I didn't see the play. Duclair slashed him or something on the back of his knee? I didn't see it."
A couple minutes later, Hornqvist laid a shoulder-to-shoulder hit on Sergachev, not a dirty play but questionable considering the timing of the game and the outcome already established. The hit sent Sergachev hard into the boards and onto the ice, where he laid for a while. When he eventually did get up, he was bent over at the waist as he skated off and seemed to be laboring to make his way down the tunnel.
Losing two of your top players in the closing minutes of an already-decided game was not an ideal way for the Lightning to finish off the Game 4 victory. We'll have to wait to know their status going forward.
"There's nothing wrong with message sending and tone setting," Cooper said. "There's nothing wrong with that. It's part of the game. That's why we love it. That's why people come in the stands and are lined up for tickets. It's awesome. But let's do it in the parameters of the game. And there's guys with stripes on that control that. But if it's not controlled, stuff like this happens tonight and you've got superstars lying on the ice hurt."