DENVER — The Tampa Bay Lightning said their confidence hasn’t been shaken despite a 7-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals Saturday night, the most one-sided playoff loss in franchise history.
“At the end of the day we lost the game, not the series,” said defender Victor Hedman.
The Lightning’s other biggest playoff blowout losses were five goals. Colorado’s 7-0 win is the second-largest shutout winning margin in the Stanley Cup Finals in NHL history.
“Am I shocked that we lost Sieben-Zip? I mean, I don’t think we saw that coming,” said center Steven Stamkos.
The Lightning captain said the margin of defeat was “completely unacceptable, especially at this time of year,” and acknowledged that some may have counted out consecutive Stanley Cup champions in the series because of it.
“Listen, people are going to watch this game tonight and probably think the series is over. But we’re a very resilient group,” he said. “We were in that position in the last round. Whether it’s 1-0, 7-0 or 10-0, it’s a playoff loss. We have to line up as a team. Let’s go home before ours fans, and let’s see what we’re made of.”
The Lightning were embarrassed in Game 2, and not just in the last loss. They were hoping for a stronger start than Game 1 as the Avalanche held a 2-0 lead by the 9:23 mark of the first period. Instead, the Lightning trailed the Avalanche by just 13:52 and 3:0 in Game 2.
It started with a hook penalty on defender Ryan McDonagh after just 1:01, which Colorado converted into a power-play goal from Valeri Nichushkin to give them a 1-0 lead.
“It was an undisciplined penalty on my part. Giving a team a power play in the first minute is never a good recipe,” said McDonagh. “We lost our cover and gave them strange looks. Every time you do that, you’re flirting with disaster and danger. It was a bad time to have a bad start.”
Promising to have a stronger Game 2, The Lightning said they found ways to slow down the Avalanche’s fleet skaters and reduce their offensive pressure. Neither did they.
“We have a game plan and we’re trying to neutralize their speed and drive. And we’ve gone a little bit off that sometimes and it cost us,” said Stamkos. “It takes a great team to recognize the mistakes we’ve made. And I have full confidence in this group that we’ll do a much better job.”
The Avalanche held a 60-28 shot lead in Game 2, with the Lightning only 16 shots on goal against goalie Darcey Kuemper.
“As soon as we started flipping the puck and giving them chances, the game kind of faltered. We gotta find a way to get momentum, get shots in the net. Not enough shots tonight. We can’t score if we don’t get any shots,” said striker Nick Paul.
The Lightning were one of the best teams in the NHL when it came to making Game 2 adjustments. In the second games of the series, they were 9-2 and have conceded just 1.91 goals per game since 2020. A big reason for this was goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who had a .938 save rate in those games. Vasilevskiy gave up all seven goals in Game 2 with 30 shots. But coach Jon Cooper said he never considered dragging his star goalie.
“Listen, this is the playoffs and we’re here to win hockey games. Vasy gives us the best chance of winning a hockey game and he’s our man,” Cooper said. “He’s the best goalkeeper in the world and we win together and we lose together. Even I did it, I don’t think he would have come out.”
The Lightning skaters said they just didn’t play well enough before Vasilevskiy.
“We let him dry tonight. He’s been our backbone for years. We owe him a better game in the next game. It’s not his fault tonight,” Stamkos said.
The series will move to Tampa for Game 3 on Monday night. The Lightning also trailed 2-0 to the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals before roaring back with four straight wins. Cooper said he saw signs the team was turning the corner on the street in Game 2. But Cooper didn’t see enough resistance from his team in Game 2 against the Avalanche, which surprised him.
“The game eluded us early and we have shown a propensity to push back for years. We didn’t do that tonight. If that becomes a common theme in this series, it will probably be a short one,” he said. “I never doubt the guys in the room. Does it suck to lose a game like this? Secure. We’re not used to it. It doesn’t really happen to us. But will it happen sometimes? Yes it is. They just hope it doesn’t happen in the Stanley Cup Finals.