Lightning seek to rebound on penalty kill in Game 2

TAMPA -- Ten games into the NHL regular season, the Tampa Bay Lightning's penalty kill was floundering. This was a team whose penalty kill had finished in fifth place in the NHL in 2023-24, at 83.3 percent, and which expected to be near the top of the League once again.

But they weren't, sitting at 72.2 percent an eighth of the way through the season, 27th in the League.

They rebounded to finish in the top 10, so the Lightning know how to build themselves, and their penalty kill, back up ahead of Game 2 against the Florida Panthers at Amalie Arena on Thursday (6:30 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, SCRIPPS, MAX, truTV, TBS, TVAS2, SN360).

They'll need to do so after the Panthers went 3-for-3 on the power play in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference First Round best-of-7 series. The power-play production gave the Panthers half of their goals in their 6-2 win Tuesday, which gave them a 1-0 series lead.

"For me, hopefully it's an aberration," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "Our PK's been exceptional of late. Because we didn't start well. I think our first 10 or 15 games we were like a bottom-10 team in the League. So you really have to play catch up to make yourself get into the top six or seven and we did that for 60-plus games. It's been great.

"Is a team going to put some power-play goals up against you? They are. Unfortunately it came in Game 1 of the playoffs. So we hope that we get back to some of the great things we've done."

By the end of the season, the Lightning were back where they expected to be, at sixth in the NHL, with an 81.6 success rate on the penalty kill.

It's why they're not worried.

"Listen, the first goal is completely my fault," forward Brandon Hagel said. "We have a ton of faith. We've been doing it all year, we've been very successful. … We've had a really good year on the penalty kill. One of those nights that just didn't go our way. It's not like anyone's in the room like … worried about that part because we've been so successful at it all year.

"There's obviously things that we can change, but at the same time, it's little details."

It was just after the Panthers had scored at 4:41 in the second period, a goal that the Lightning unsuccessfully challenged, that they went on the penalty kill for the first time in the game.

It only lasted 14 seconds before Matthew Tkachuk found himself all by himself right in front of goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.

He didn't miss.

"I think the puck movement was really good," Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. "Just quick puck movement that we weren't stationary, we were just moving it quick. Then the one play [Tkachuk] was wide open in front because of that quick puck movement. The other one, just a great read by him to throw it on net. There's not one thing in particular, but obviously our power play did a great job."

It's something the Panthers will be trying to replicate and something the Lightning will be trying to prevent.

"We've had a tremendous penalty kill all year," Hagel said. "We're not going to doubt that, by no means. It is what it is. It happened."

Putting a wrench into that is the availability of Anthony Cirelli, who left Game 1 early in the second period after playing 6:21. There was no update on his status on Wednesday. Cirelli is the Lightning's top penalty-killing forward, having averaged 2:03 per game in the regular season.

If Cirelli isn't able to play, it would be a major blow for the Lightning, both overall -- the Lightning have gone with 11 forwards and seven defenseman of late, with forward Oliver Bjorkstrand injured -- and on the penalty kill.

For Tampa, though, it was one game. One game against a very good opponent, one with a good power play of its own.

"Sometimes everybody looks at you and asks questions, they're like, 'Well, can you do this better?'" Cooper said. "You know what, they're playing too, and they've got some good players and they're making plays. Sometimes you tip your cap to the other team and say, 'OK, good job.'

"Do we think we probably made some errors in judgement? There's no question. We have a veteran enough and committed enough team to fix those mistakes. But also give Florida credit for making some nice plays."