NHL
The Lightning head into the NHL's Olympic break on a 19-1-1 tear. Mark LoMoglio / Getty Images
TAMPA, Fla. — As confident as Jon Cooper is — and this is a man who wore a “Scarface”-themed outfit to Sunday’s Stadium Series game — last summer was a time for self-reflection for the Tampa Bay Lightning and their head coach.
Nobody has won more playoff games over the past 10 years than the Lightning’s 88. Vegas is next at 61. But their last series win came in 2022, and the three straight first-round exits since have been humbling, even if two of them were to the eventual champion Florida Panthers.
Cooper said they needed a “reset.”
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“We were looking here, saying, ‘Our window is still open, but not the same as it was in 2015-16,’” Cooper told The Athletic. “So here are some ways to a solution. The solution is going to be tough.”
It wasn’t revamping systems or massive roster changes. It was getting back to the identity of their Stanley Cup teams from 2020 and 2021.
“We defended our way to championships,” Ryan McDonagh said.
Cooper was hard on the team during the preseason — maybe too hard, he said — and after a 1-5-1 start, plenty were wondering: Is this the end for the Lightning?
“The bells were going off,” Cooper said.
What happened next, though, has shown that the window is still very open.
The Lightning have been the best team in the league for months, on a 19-1-1 tear heading into the Olympic break that’s put them atop the Eastern Conference. The latest victim was the back-to-back champ Panthers, with Tampa Bay whipping them 6-1 on Thursday in the latest intense, bloody, brutal installment of what’s become the NHL’s fiercest rivalry, the Battle of Florida.
Nikita Kucherov is playing at Hart Trophy level, and Andrei Vasilevskiy is a contender for the Vezina Trophy. And impressively, the Lightning have done all of this despite lengthy absences for McDonagh, Victor Hedman and Brayden Point, who will now miss the Olympics. Their depth has shown, with savvy free-agent signings like Dominic James and Charle-Edouard D’Astous stepping up.
“The core of the engine is still really good,” Cooper said. “It’s some of the side parts that needed to be fixed and lubricated and a couple new wires here and there. But, other than that, we’re not anywhere without the core group we have. The (Kucherov), (Vasilevskiy), Point, (Brandon) Hagel, (Jake) Guentzel, McDonagh, Hedman. That core group is what’s led us. We’ve just done a great job surrounding them with players that we need to surround themselves with.”
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Cup windows eventually close — for everyone. The Blackhawks won three championships between 2010 and 2015 and 76 playoff games from 2009 and 2019 but then went into a deep rebuild and have missed the playoffs the past five seasons. The Penguins won three championships from 2009 to 2017 but have missed the playoffs for three years and haven’t won a series in eight.
The Lightning have made the playoffs in all but one of the past 12 seasons, starting with Cooper’s first full one, 2013-14 — but this season in particular could go a long way to showing whether they’ve got another run or two in them.
“There are teams that have dips,” Cooper said. “The Patriots dynasty. I would have thought we were a semi-dynasty. It’s a little dip, but we didn’t go to the bottom. Just a little dip for us was not winning in the first round. Hopefully, now we can make the playoffs but then get some multiple rounds of advancement.”
When J.J. Moser came to the Lightning from Utah in June 2024, what struck him about the team was the culture. The standard. There was no panic.
“You come in here and realize why they’re always here,” Moser said. “Because of the calmness, confidence. It’s the work, attention to detail. It’s the consistency. And treating people right from the top to the bottom. It creates that stability that allows them to be competitive for a dozen years.”
But none of that was apparent to start this season.
Vasilevskiy was struggling. Kucherov had three goals in his first seven games — not his typical dominant self. And, more than anything, the attention to detail on the defensive side of the game was “pretty much non-existent,” Cooper said.
Moser wondered what would happen next. Would there be a shake-up trade? A yelling session from Cooper?
There were plenty of talks and meetings. But Moser and other Lightning players saw a steady hand in Cooper that’s made him a sure-fire Hall of Famer.
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“You come in and have a rough start, it’s easy to be like, ‘Let’s change everything, everything is bad, let’s trade a bunch of guys, whatever,’” Moser said. “It’s way easier to be active to do something to show a reaction that nobody is happy. But the confidence to stay put — ‘We trust this group, we have problems, we’ll figure it out’ — that consistency allows you to build. Everyone learns and you have more experience in your toolbox and everything comes together. Young guys (who) come in are exposed to that culture right away. They realize, ‘This is how we do it. This is the standard.’”
Getting those young guys up to speed has been especially important this season, with the injuries to Hedman, McDonagh, Cernak and Point.
James, who signed as a college free agent in the summer, has been a revelation as a second-line center with Point out. Coaches believe they have nine NHL-ready defenseman on the roster with D’Astous, Max Crozier, Emil Lilleberg and Declan. Raddysh, an undrafted 29-year-old who had topped out at six goals and 37 points in his previous four NHL seasons, has 17 goals and 52 points in 49 games.
Gage Goncalves, a 2020 second-rounder, has thrived even in a top-six role at times in his second full NHL season.
“I wouldn’t call them AHL anymore,” Vasilevskiy said.
Goncalves credits part of it to Cooper’s belief in him.
“You come onto a team with a bunch of first-ballot Hall of Famers, it gets nerve-wracking,” he said. “You want to get them the puck all the time, defer. (Cooper) had the belief: ‘It’s your turn to make a play or beat a guy one-on-one. Do your thing.’ He’s probably the greatest coach of all time. And we’re doing our best to hopefully add to his resume.”
Cooper has yet to win a Jack Adams as coach of the year, but this could very well be the season that changes. The Lightning rank second in the NHL behind the Colorado Avalanche in points percentage, goals for per game and goals against per game, and they are No. 4 on the penalty kill.
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“He could sense a little bit of panic,” Goncalves said. “I don’t think the older guys really panic. But the younger guys, you lose six straight, it’s like, ‘What the heck is happening right now?’ These guys that have been through it — Coop, (Hedman), McDonagh — they kept telling us how good a team we were going to be and how good we are. It was nice that nobody lost their mind. We cleaned up little things, and, in this league, little things make a big difference.”
In a league with a revolving door of coaches in the NHL, Cooper is the longest-tenured for a reason. Jeff Blashill, a close friend of Cooper’s, saw it firsthand as a Tampa Bay assistant before becoming the Chicago Blackhawks’ head coach.
“His player interaction and feel for the room is second to none,” Blashill said. “His ability to connect with players but still hold them accountable is second to none. To me, that’s more important than how you run a practice or your systems. He does the most important things really, really well.
“I don’t think he’s gotten maybe the recognition year to year that he deserves.”
Vasilevskiy sat back in his chair and took a deep breath.
“I’m tired,” he quipped.
At 31, he’s not feeling old already, is he?
“I’m not young, either,” he replied, smiling.
This was Saturday, the day before the Lightning’s 6-5 shootout win in the Stadium Series, when Vasilevskiy showed his southpaw skills in an epic fight with Boston’s Jeremy Swayman.
The “Big Cat,” as everyone calls him, still has a lot of bite in his game. And he’s on a remarkable roll: 16-0-1 in his past 17 starts.
Kucherov is back at the top of his game, too. He’s racked up 55 points in his past 24 games (2.29 per game), including eight games with three or more points
Is he the best player in the world right now?
“Absolutely, for sure,” said former Lightning captain Steven Stamkos. “He doesn’t skate like Connor (McDavid) does, but he does a lot of other things that some of these guys can’t do, right? I think if you ask players around the league, he’s probably one of the players that guys say that they enjoy watching because it’s not as obvious as blowing by someone on the ice or making a power move like (Nathan) MacKinnon. I mean, it’s kind of like an art. Amazing.”
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Vasilevskiy and Kucherov are two of three Lightning players left from the 2014-15 team that started this run by surprising the hockey world and going to the Stanley Cup Final, along with Hedman.
There are eight left from the 2022 Cup team, with McDonagh, Cirelli, Point, Yanni Gourde and Cernak the others.
It’s this core, supported now by Guentzel and Hagel, that gives them belief that anything is possible.
“When you have elite players like that, your window is always open,” said three-time Cup champion Pat Maroon, who won two of those with Tampa Bay. “Not to mention the best goalie in the world. It’s just about filling in the pieces of what they’re missing.”
Still, this same core lost in six games to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2023 and in five games to the Panthers in 2024 and 2025.
What’s been missing?
“I feel like it’s a bunch of different factors,” Vasilevskiy said. “We played the back-to-back champs. That didn’t help. They were at their best, went to three Finals. You play against a prime team and probably the best team they’ve ever had — since they were (founded) — that’s hard to judge.
“But at the same time, to be the best, you have to beat the best, and that’s on us. I just remember they were so consistent through the whole playoffs. Just like when we were winning.”
The Lightning’s best players weren’t their best players, either, in the recent playoff exits. Vasilevskiy, who won the Conn Smythe in 2022 with a .937 save percentage, was at .875 in the loss to the Leafs and .897 and .872 in the losses to Florida. Kucherov, who scored 23 goals and 93 points in 71 playoff games during the three straight runs to the Finals, has one goal in his past 16 playoff games, though he does also have 17 points.
“It’s hard to win. It’s even harder to repeat and harder to get back into that playoff mix,” Vasilevskiy said. “What I mean is just consistently winning playoff series. Every season, I felt like we’ve been consistent in the playoffs the last 10 years, but the last three, it didn’t look like it. Even though we were pretty solid in the regular season, for some reason, in the playoffs, we couldn’t really (win) when we played such a consistent team. We just couldn’t match their consistency and work ethic and commitment to win games.
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“You can play boring hockey, like chip it in, forecheck at the same time, if it works. Why not? They’ve been able to do that the last few years, and we were too skilled for the playoffs, if I can say it that way. We tried to skill our way through the playoffs. It doesn’t work like that. Not in this league.”
The Blackhawks went into full rebuild, which got them what they hope is a generational star in Connor Bedard.
The Penguins are still building and retooling around their core, which is Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.
A big part of what’s helped Tampa Bay navigate the cap and remain a contender is the bold decisions by owner Jeff Vinik, general manager Julien BriseBois and company. The team dealt multiple first-round picks for Brandon Hagel in March 2022, and he’s been a game-breaker and all-around player. As tough as it was to move on from Stamkos, the two-time Cup-winning captain, it enabled them to add Guentzel in 2024.
“That’s what I learned from Julien: You have to take emotion out of the decision, which is easier said than done, especially when you win with those guys,” said Mathieu Darche, the former Lightning AGM and now GM of the Islanders. “(BriseBois) took no pleasure in that. He loves the guy. You’re running a team; you have to do what’s best for the team. You want to keep the gang forever, but sometimes decisions have to be made.
“If you let emotions take over rationale, that’s when you get in trouble. Every decision we made was far from perfect. But I think our batting average was pretty frickin’ good.”
The Lightning have drafted in the first round just once in the last six years (Isaac Howard in 2022, who they traded to Edmonton), but have hit on some mid-rounders and added college free agents like James and Carlile.
“He’s found a way to take an aging team and make it younger,” Cooper said. “Surround the core with very capable players, and (BriseBois has) done it with no cap space. It’s been pretty remarkable. He’s had to make some shrewd decisions, and we all know what those were. But to be able to reel in Guentzel, lock up some of the guys that he has — you look at all this, and especially when you read the pundits and we’re like 30th in the prospects pool — Julien has done a heck of a job keeping us relevant.”
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The Lightning picked up Zemgus Girgensons in the 2024 offseason on a three-year deal with an $850,000 cap hit, and then Pontus Holmberg last summer at two years and a $1.55 million cap hit. They’ve combined with Gourde to form a third line that has sparked comparisons to the Gourde-Barclay Goodrow-Blake Coleman line from the back-to-back Cup-champion teams.
“There’s a lot of similarities,” Cooper said. “Holmberg and Girgensons are big, strong, puck-possession pain-in-the-asses. Very much like Coleman and Goodrow were. So many similar attributes. Just maybe not as much offensive pop. But their chemistry is like the other group.”
Cooper noted that, like his previous Cup teams, this group has a top-five penalty kill and a potent power play. And while the blue line isn’t as big as the title teams, he said, “The mentality, tenaciousness and toughness, they play just as big as the other group.”
There’s a sense around this group that there’s more pushback in their game, despite their size, as evidenced by leading the league in fighting majors (29).
“We’re checking a lot of boxes we used to check when we were going to championships,” Cooper said.
Comeback wins Sunday and Tuesday were an example of what McDonagh sees as a common thread for title teams.
“We’ve got gamers in here, guys that are really competitive,” McDonagh said. “What I remember about our teams that won, we had absolute gamers. When it came time, we were dialed in and focused. Whatever it takes, we had each other’s backs out there. You play five minutes, 15 minutes, 25 minutes, it didn’t matter. That’s what we’ve built over the first part of the season. That gives me confidence. No matter who is out there or whatever role, they play well.”
There’s still a long way to go, and the Panthers — assuming they can sneak into the playoffs — still need to be dethroned. But Darche believes the Lightning remain the “standard” in the Eastern Conference, from how they’re built to their body of work and how they’re playing this season.
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“They’re the scariest team in the East,” said former Cup champ Mike Rupp, an NHL Network analyst. “Every year when we sit there and we make these dumb predictions, I want to say someone else besides Tampa, but I always pick Tampa. Eventually, these guys are going to age out. But they go get Guentzel, who fits perfect. They get Hagel. They’re without their top three defenseman this year. They have this D’Astous kid, who looks incredible. Raddysh looks like an All-Star. I’m like, ‘Holy s—.’ You’ve got to give credit to that organization, the coaching, the scouting.
“That’s why, to me, they’re the modern-day dynasty.”
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Joe Smith is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Minnesota Wild and the National Hockey League. He spent the previous four years as Tampa Bay Lightning beat writer for The Athletic after a 12-year-stint at the Tampa Bay Times. At the Times, he covered the Lightning from 2010-18 and the Tampa Bay Rays and Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2008-13. Follow Joe on Twitter @JoeSmithNHL
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