Lightning’s March madness has them back among top contenders

Kristen Shilton, ESPN NHL reporterApr 8, 2024, 07:30 AM ET

CloseKristen Shilton is a national NHL reporter for ESPN.

The Tampa Bay Lightning had their own March madness this year. With a March mantra to boot: Just win, baby.

And no surprise — the Lightning did. A lot.

Tampa Bay went 9-1-1 last month, saving their best run of the season (so far) for the stretch drive toward playoffs. It’s not the first time the Lightning have hung back, only to flip the proverbial switch right when points and positioning are paramount.

It’s a sound strategy when successful — even if Tampa Bay isn’t exactly aiming to be so dramatic.

“We’re obviously not trying to wait that long [to get going],” defenseman Victor Hedman said with a laugh. “But yeah, that’s just how things have played out. But we’re always confident in ourselves and we’re confident in the core group that we are going to be able to sustain a high level of play from here for a deep playoff run.”

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Tampa Bay certainly knows what it takes to go on one. The Lightning were back-to-back Stanley Cup champions in 2020 and 2021, and reached the Final again in 2022. The accumulation of acclaim made their first-round exit against Toronto in 2023 all the more disappointing — but even additional offseason rest didn’t help the Lightning transition to a new year.

In fact, Tampa Bay downright struggled to start this season. Without goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy — who was sidelined by offseason hip surgery until late November — the Lightning struggled to barely get above .500 and were 18-15-5 on Dec. 31. The Lightning had at that point also lost top-pairing defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to an upper-body injury and were looking for a clear direction.

That was uncharted territory for Tampa Bay after being rapidly locked in to its postseason fate a season ago.

“I think last year at Christmas we knew we were playing the Leafs [in the first round],” Jon Cooper said last week. “This year at Christmas, we knew we weren’t…

Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/39893020/nhl-lightning-march-madness-standings-playoffs-stanley-cup-contenders

Author : Kristen Shilton

Publish date : 2024-04-08 11:52:48

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