Lightning look to rewrite history against Columbus

One storyline that will undoubtedly be repeated ad nauseum as the Tampa Bay Lightning open the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs Tuesday against Columbus is their stunning First Round playoff collapse last postseason after a historic regular season, the Blue Jackets sweeping the Bolts in less than a week and leaving Lightning fans with a summer of wondering what the heck happened to their team from the end of the regular season to the start of the playoffs.

Unfortunately for the Lightning, that storyline isn't going to disappear until they defeat Columbus in their First Round series.

But this Lightning team is nothing like the one that lost four straight to the Blue Jackets last April and were outscored 15-5 in the final three games after allowing a 3-0 lead to slip away in Game 1.

This current version of the Tampa Bay Lightning was constructed with these playoffs in mind. Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois along with the Bolts coaching staff went into the offseason asking themselves how can we become a better team and how can we construct ourselves differently so we're better suited for winning in the postseason?

They needed to add some size and physicality to their lineup, they determined, in order to match up with opponents that might try to wear them down over the course of a series, the grind of a NHL playoff run notoriously taxing.

And they needed to commit to playing better team defense, the goal being to limit opponents to two or fewer goals to give yourself a chance to win each and every game.

To those ends, they made additions in the offseason. They brought in Patrick Maroon on a one-year contract, the power forward coming off a Stanley Cup championship with his hometown St. Louis Blues.

Curtis McElhinney was signed to back up Andrei Vasilevskiy, and the Lightning net saw little if no dropoff when he spelled the Vezina finalist. The Bolts were gifted Kevin Shattenkirk as training camp neared, the New York Rangers deciding to buy out his contract and the Lightning pouncing on the opportunity to add a former NHL All-Star with a chip on his shoulder to their blue line.

The Lightning got grittier at the trade deadline. They brought in Blake Coleman, who they knew well from their 2018 First Round playoff series against New Jersey. Coleman ranked 11th among NHL forwards for hits this season and scored 20-plus goals for the second-straight season.

Barclay Goodrow came over from San Jose. The 27-year-old forward is a penalty-killing dynamo with some snarl in his game - ask the Boston Bruins - and also had a career year offensively with eight goals and 24 points.

And with injuries mounting defensively near the trade deadline, the Lightning signed free agent defenseman Zach Bogosian for the remainder of the season, taking a flyer on a veteran who'd had his contract terminated by Buffalo after not accepting an assignment to AHL Rochester but who still had plenty to prove in his career having never played in the postseason despite 12 seasons in the League.

Those blue line injuries might have been a blessing in disguise for the Lightning. You never want to see players not healthy enough to play, but if Jan Rutta and Ryan McDonagh and Victor Hedman were not all ailing at the trade deadline, it's unlikely the Lightning have a need to bring in Bogosian. The 30 year old used the four-month pause to fully recover from offseason hip surgery and now says his body feels better than it has in four or five years. His quick skating, sharp breakout passes and rough-and-tumble style of defense has been a valuable addition for the Bolts, even more so with the status of Norris Trophy finalist Victor Hedman unknown.

Collectively, the new additions have ensured the Lightning are no pushover. Washington and Boston found that out in the seeding games when each team tried to bully the Lightning after falling behind 2-0. The Bolts punched them right back and defeated both.

Defensively, the Lightning finished tied for seventh in the NHL for fewest goals against, giving up 2.77 per game. But it was a stretch from December 23 through February 17 when Tampa Bay really hit its stride with how it wants to defend as a team. In those 26 contests, the Lightning allowed an average of 1.88 goals per game. From January 1 to February 17, they didn't give up more than three goals in any game.

Not coincidentally, the Lightning went 23-2-1 over those 26 games, tying the franchise mark for most consecutive wins (10) and breaking that record with an 11-game win streak later in the stretch.

The Lightning, it would appear, have added the necessary elements for a different outcome this time around against the Blue Jackets.

"Our team's a different team than we were last year, and when you look at (the Blue Jackets), they're a pretty different team as well," Lightning forward Alex Killorn said. "We're not focusing on last year. We're really focusing on just playing our game and excited for playoff hockey."

Maroon's addition might pay the most dividends in the weeks to come. It's fresh on his mind what it takes to win a Stanley Cup after doing so last year with the Blues. If the Lightning get into a difficult situation, they can lean on their veteran forward - much as he leans on opponents down low -- to provide a fresh perspective on how to get through.

"There's a lot of faces in (the Lightning locker room) that knows what it takes to get there," Maroon said. "They've been stuck, but hopefully my voice carries in the room and just try to find ways to find an identity for our team, playing the right way every night, just playing simple, playing hard, competing and being mentally strong going forward. Each game is going to be tough. You're not going to win a series in Game 1. It's how you're going to respond to each game. Mentally and physically, you've got to be engaged every single night."

Columbus enters the series opener Tuesday more battle-tested than the Lightning having just fought through an excruciating best-of-five qualifying round showdown with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Blue Jackets defeated the Leafs 3-0 Sunday night in Game 5, two nights after allowing a 3-0 lead slip to away in the dying moments and losing Game 4 in overtime.

Columbus is also at somewhat of a disadvantage having to start another series a day-and-a-half after that hard-fought Game 5 victory. The Lightning have an extra day of rest having finished their round robin schedule Saturday.

"They're tested. And aside from the injuries, we're rested," Cooper said.

All season, Tampa Bay was asked what happened in last year's playoffs against Columbus. The questions came often as the team gathered for training camp and the regular season started. They died down as the season progressed, brought up periodically by visiting team media seeing the Lightning for the first time since the collapse.

Now all those old memories will be brought up once more as, again, the Blue Jackets are the First Round opponent for a second-straight season.

This time, the Lightning feel they have what it takes to produce a different ending.

"What happened last year happened last year. That's in history books forever," Cooper said. "Now it's time to write your own history, and that's what we intend to do with this team."

HEDMAN'S STATUS UNKNOWN: The Lightning lost Victor Hedman early in the first period of the round robin finale against Philadelphia due to injury, the superstar defenseman getting his feet tangled underneath him after skating just 2:28 of the contest and was unable to continue playing.

Whether the Lightning will have Hedman when the First Round begins against Columbus is unknown.

During his media availability Monday, Cooper said Hedman's status "will be determined (Tuesday)."

He declined to elaborate further.

Hedman is a Norris Trophy finalist for the fourth-straight season after posting 11 goals and 55 points in 66 regular season games. He's chipped in one assist - in the second game of the round robin at Boston - in the playoffs so far.