Lightning vow to rebound after Game 1 loss to Rangers

NEW YORK --The Tampa Bay Lightning didn't have a lot of positives to point to and weren't interested in ready-made excuses following their 6-2 loss to the New York Rangers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.

So they tipped their caps to the Rangers for capitalizing on their numerous mistakes and vowed to be better in Game 2 of the best-of-7 series here Friday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN; ESPN+, CBC, SN, TVAS).
"Certainly not our best game," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. "They're a team that has some really good players, and if you give them those chances, they're going to bury them. I don't care what the situation is. There were opportunities for us to make some better reads and some better plays, and it wasn't there tonight.
"This group has bounced back always. We'll bounce back."
The Lightning are 17-0 following a loss in the postseason since start of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. It's a testament to their resiliency that's helped them win the Stanley Cup each of the past two seasons and has them eight wins from becoming the first team to win it in three straight seasons since the New York Islanders' run of four consecutive championships from 1980-83.
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However, they are smart enough to know they can't expect to win Game 2 with the same sloppy performance they gave Wednesday, when they were plagued throughout by turnovers and poor decisions with the puck that fed the Rangers' rush game. The Lightning also had repeated breakdowns in coverage in the defensive zone that eventually led to goals.
It added up to a long night for goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who allowed six goals on 34 shots after giving up three goals on 154 shots in four games against the Florida Panthers in the second round. The six goals matched the most Vasilevskiy has allowed in 93 NHL playoff games (twice) and had the Garden crowd chanting "Igor's better!" in support of the Rangers' Igor Shesterkin, who took the first round of this showdown between elite goalies by stopping 37 of 39 shots.
It was also the first time Vasilevskiy allowed more than one goal since Tampa Bay's 4-3 overtime win in Game 6 of the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Not that anyone blamed him, though.
"This isn't on him at all," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "The quality scoring chances we gave up, you could've put both goalies in the net and they're still probably going in."
The Lightning had won six consecutive games since falling behind 3-2 in the first round but were off since completing their second-round sweep of the Panthers with a 2-0 victory in Game 4 on May 23. The Rangers advanced to the conference final with a 6-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 7 of the second round on Monday but looked like the fresher team, particularly in the second period, when they outshot the Lightning 17-10 and outscored them 3-1 to take a 4-2 lead.
"We might have gotten a little tired as that game went on because we haven't played in a game for a while here, but no excuse on our part," Cooper said. "I give the Rangers full marks on their game, their plan, their effort tonight, and we'll try and make a few adjustments here and we'll be back in two nights."

The Rangers jumped on the Lightning from the start, with Chris Kreider finishing a 2-on-1 with Mika Zibanejad to take a 1-0 lead 1:11 into the first period.
Stamkos tied it on a one-timer from the high slot at 7:18, but New York retook the lead 7:50 into the second on Frank Vatrano's goal from the high slot. Although Tampa Bay tied it again on Ondrej Palat's rebound goal at 8:32, its defensive breakdowns continued.
First, Filip Chytil was left alone in front to finish a feed from Kaapo Kakko to put the Rangers on top 3-2 at 10:09. Then, the Lightning line of Stamkos (1:29 of ice time), Anthony Cirelli (1:27) and Palat (1:29), and defensemen Mikhail Sergachev (2:47) and Cal Foote (1:49) were trapped on the ice for consecutive shifts culminating in Chytil's second goal, which made it 4-2 at 15:43.
"We came out. We were down early. We tied it," Stamkos said. "They go up again and we tie it, so we have to be better. There's areas that we're going to improve on. It's Game 1 of a long series and you've got to give them credit. I think there's areas we can improve, and we will improve."
Their confidence comes from being in this position before and finding a way to win the next game each time. The Lightning lost 5-0 to the Maple Leafs in Game 1 and won 5-3 in Game 2 to even the series.
"You never want to lose two in a row," defenseman Victor Hedman said. "So for us to bounce back is going to be huge. On the road again, but at the same time, it's going to be big for us. We're a strong group mentally and we'll bounce back."