NHL / NHL: Lightning, Golden Knights’ turn to bounce back from loss

LAS VEGAS – The Tampa Bay Lightning and Golden Knights are favorites to win their second-round series. But after losses on Saturday, they are just hoping to regain the ice rink advantage.

Hours after the Boston Bruins took a 1-0 lead over the Lightning by winning 6-2, the Sharks inflicted a first loss on the Golden Knights since the start of the spring tournament, beating them 4-3 in the second extra period. , creating the 1-1 stalemate in their series.

Golden Knights head coach Gerard Gallant echoed his words to Lightning counterpart Jon Cooper, calling his squad’s performance the worst since the start of the playoffs.

« I didn’t like the way we played, that’s what I remember, » Gallant said on Sunday, before heading to San Jose. It’s not just the fact that you lost in overtime. I didn’t like how we played for the first 40 minutes. « 

And if the Lightning enjoyed six days off after eliminating the New Jersey Devils in five games, it was the Bruins who played the most energetically, three days after a thrilling game to eliminate the Toronto Maple Leafs. in seven meetings.

Cooper pulled the whip out in practice Sunday in hopes of seeing his squad work harder in Game 2 on Monday.

“The goal was to get the team in the best possible shape for the next game,” said Cooper. It is natural to develop your game habits during training. We had had a week off. We did some good things, but we weren’t at the level of a team that had just played in a seventh and that’s the kind of energy we’re going to need on Monday and throughout the series. « 

The trio of Brad Marchand (one goal, three assists), David Pastrnak (four assists) and Patrice Bergeron (two goals, one assist) accumulated 11 points for the Bruins, while the unit of Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos and JT Miller was shut out of the scoresheet in Game 1.

“Every round you have to raise your level of play, your intensity, and we didn’t,” Cooper repeated. We took a step back and a great team made us pay the price. « 

It was a bit the same with the Golden Knights, who were the shadow of the team that started their Western Conference semi-final by crushing the Sharks 7-0. The Golden Knights were unruly and out of sync during the first two periods.

“We were perhaps too confident after the first game and didn’t have a good start to the game on Saturday,” said Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore. We must avoid repeating this scenario in the third game. We can’t take stupid penalties. We spent a good part of the evening with a player in the dungeon and it came back to haunt us. « 

During the regular season, the Golden Knights had never received more than 13 penalty minutes in a game. On Saturday, they accumulated 22 penalty minutes.

This situation complicated the task of goalkeeper Marc-André Fleury. The latter had allowed only three goals in the first five games of the playoffs and he finally gave up three times in the second period only, Saturday.

“We have a good group of players and it’s not an unusual position,” said Fleury. It doesn’t matter if you win 7-0 or if you lose like the other night, you always have to come to the arena in the same frame of mind. «