The Lightning certainly have the edge in experience over the Panthers. Tampa Bay has been to the playoffs four-straight seasons and seven of the last eight seasons. They've been to the Eastern Conference Final four times and the Stanley Cup Final twice over that stretch. Florida hasn't won a playoff series since 1996 when they unexpectedly reached the Stanley Cup Final.
The Lightning will lean on that experience to see them through this rough patch. But it's not the end all, be all determinant for playoff success.
"You just don't throw experience on the ice and experience wins the game for you," Cooper said. "You still have to play the game. It's something, you can kind of dig into and look back upon and say, 'Okay, I've been through this situation before. How did I deal with it?' With this team, they've made us proud so many times and they've pulled through so many times and you want to have a squad that's been through this before. But, for me, if I'm sitting here saying you've got a 2-1 lead, I would have taken it. Can't really sit here and say, 'Oh well, this is how we got here.' We've got a two-games-to-one lead and we've had 2-1 leads before in playoff series and known how to deal with them. And so moving forward here, it's a different opponent but we know how to deal with these, and that's what we have to do moving forward."
GAME 5 INFO: Following Tampa Bay's Game 3 loss, the National Hockey League announced Game 5 in Sunrise, which is now assured of happening, will have an 8 p.m. puck drop at BB&T Center. Game 5 will air locally on Bally Sports Sun and stream live on the Bally Sports app.