Down 3-1 to Leafs, experienced Lightning in 'good headspace' - ESPN

TORONTO — The Tampa Bay Lightning have been here before.

Down 3-1 in their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against the Maple Leafs. On the brink of elimination in Game 5 on Thursday. And yet, the Lightning see no reason to panic.

After all, Tampa Bay didn't win back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021 or reach last year's Final without knowing how to weather adversity — and answer their critics.

«Most people picked the Leafs to beat us,» said Lightning coach Jon Cooper on Thursday. «They're up 3-1, so people are sitting there saying, 'Well, we told you so.' I look at it and say, 'We've had some tough lapses in games.' And I think for the most part, we've done a lot of what we wanted to do. I think that we've scored enough goals; we've just given up too many.

»If we keep doing what we're doing, but just do it 2% better, I think some of these breaks that maybe have not gone our way we can push to go our way."

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The Lightning have, in many ways, controlled much of the series. Tampa pummeled Toronto on the road with a 7-3 victory in Game 1, and the Lightning led both Game 3 and Game 4 deep into the third period before those aforementioned lapses allowed Toronto to come back and earn a pair of overtime wins.

That's all in the past now as Tampa Bay's focus shifts to simply extending its season one outing at a time. And there's no shortage of belief in their ranks. The Lightning overcame two series deficits in the first round —