Lightning nonetheless ‘pissed off’ after playoff loss to Maple Leafs

HENDERSON, NV — The Tampa Bay Lightning didn’t need to be that workforce.

That workforce — the primary one in 19 years — to lose a playoff sequence to the Toronto Maple Leafs, to observe the guests have a good time on your property ice, to have a three-year streak of journeys to the Stanley Cup Closing blow up in six wild video games.

“In my head, we should always’ve received the Cup. Yearly we should always win the Cup, in my head. Yeah, clearly we’re pissed off. We don’t need to lose,” Lightning stud defenceman Mikhail Sergachev informed 32 Ideas: The Podcast Wednesday on the Participant Media Tour.

“We don’t need to be the workforce that Toronto lastly obtained to the second spherical, they usually beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. They didn’t undergo the second spherical. However we didn’t need to be that and lose to them.”

Regardless of ending beneath the Maple Leafs in a top-heavy Atlantic Division, the Lightning core carried two rings and a boatload of expertise into final Could’s showdown and by no means thought of themselves underdogs.

The Leafs wanted three additional time victories to slay the dragon and barely edged Tampa in complete targets (23-21). The sequence was tight, and it has left a scar.

“We’ll see when camp begins how pissed off we’re. The blokes are very aggressive even now. Normally earlier than camp we skate [together],” Sergachev mentioned.

“We’ll do 5 drills and play a recreation. Normally it’s like beer-league hockey. Now, it’s intense. Some hitting, too. It’s nice. Aggressive. Nobody goes to let me stroll them on the blue line. It’s not acceptable anymore.”

Whereas the flat cap has as soon as once more sapped the Lightning of key personnel — Alex Killorn, Ross Colton, and its whole fourth line of Corey Perry, Pat Maroon and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, have moved on — the starvation is again after the membership’s longest low season since 2019.

Sergachev notes that head coach Jon Cooper is already busy making tactical changes for 2023-24. In current seasons, Tampa tweaked its neutral-zone technique and breakout strategies.

A pair extra wrinkles cooked up by Cooper and his workers will probably be unveiled come October.

“He’s evolving within the recreation of hockey too,” Sergachev says. “He needs to win, and we get that power from him each camp. There’s no sitting round. It’s go, go, go.

“We’ve obtained new modifications coming this yr. I’m not going to say the place. You guys will determine it out simple once we play.”

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