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May 23, 2021
Panthers lightning dirty

Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper did not use the word ‘dirty’ when talking about his team’s resounding Game 4 win against the Florida Panthers on Saturday afternoon. He did not have to.

The Lightning-Panthers series took a turn on Saturday although it was not a big, swooping U-turn across four lanes of traffic.

No, it was just a quick flick of the steering wheel.

This thing has been on the verge of blowing up for weeks now.

The Lightning coach may blame the Panthers and the officials for what happened in the second half of Saturday’s game, but his Tampa Bay team was right in the middle of it.


And has been since this started two weeks ago.

You wanted a true, heated Florida-Tampa Bay rivalry?

Done.

But if the Lightning truly wonders how things got where they are (and it certainly is not), Cooper doesn’t have very far to look.

In his postgame media session, Cooper was asked how he thought his team “weathered the emotions” against the Panthers on Saturday.

After a quick back-and-forth with a reporter, Cooper replied curtly, “how did it get ugly? Why was that?”

Well, Coop, how about we look at what happened midway through the second?

Tampa Bay took a 5-1 lead in the second when Alex Killorn got his second goal of the period. Florida pulled Sergei Bobrovsky and this game was just about over. On the following shift, the two teams traded some hits but nothing big happened.

A minute after Tampa Bay took complete control of this game, Pat Maroon boarded Frank Vatrano in the corner, sending Vatrano’s head into the dasher boards.

Two minute penalty.

How did it get ugly?

Well, how about right here?

Both teams scuffled as Vatrano stayed down on the ice. Luke Schenn even ripped Noel Acciari’s helmet off in the ensuing scrum.

Cooper may have conveniently forgotten that series of events.

Or maybe he did not recall seeing Blake Coleman spearing Jonathan Huberdau from his seat on the bench as he and Yanni Gourde jostled early in the game.

Coleman should have been penalized and was not. One of those “non calls” Cooper was complaining about it appears.

“We did what we had to do to get the lead,’’ Cooper said, “and the hockey game ended at some point in the second. It turned into something different.”

At least Cooper admitted his team “aren’t angels out there.”

”When your players are being told ‘don’t do anything stupid or we’ll get you’ and the other team gets rewarded for it, I just don’t get it,” Cooper said. “It’s really frustrating.”

Two weeks ago, Tampa Bay trailed Florida 4-1 after two periods and all hell broke loose. Saturday, things went south once the Panthers trailed 5-1 but dirty stuff was going on earlier in the game as it had throughout the series.

And it wasn’t just the Lightning pulling stuff, either. Both teams were willing participants.

The Panthers, trying to prove something, were ready to jump into anything they could. They have something to prove.

Knowing that, we all knew where this game was eventually going to go.

Killorn said players know who to watch when a game gets out of hand and we assume he’s talking about the likes of Vatrano, Patric Hornqvist and Ryan Lomberg on the Florida side. But the Panthers know who to keep an eye on as well.

OLD TIME HOCKEY?

In the game two weeks ago, a total of 31 penalties and 154 minutes were called (with five misconducts per side) and it was good for promoting this series.

Players were fined and, in Maroon’s case, suspended.

The Florida and Tampa Bay postseason matchup was already set. The regular season battles, hits and fights were good theatre. Hopefully good for ratings.

What better way to pump things up than with a little old-fashioned hatred?

It has sold Pittsburgh-Philadelphia for years, Edmonton-Calgary as well. Why not Florida-Tampa?

The rivalry no one wanted to admit actually did exist has brought out the ugly side in both teams. There have been some hits that have been across the line on each end of the ice.

In the opener, Anthony Duclair was boarded by Ryan McDonagh and nothing, save for a two-minute penalty, happened.

On Saturday, Duclair took a whack at the left leg of star Nikita Kucherov and Twitter almost disintegrated.

When asked what he thought of the Duclair slash after watching it on replay, Florida coach Joel Quenneville said “not much there for me.” It was called dirty, and perhaps it was. Did not look like more than a swipe as Duclair went by. We’ll see what happens here.

”I hope he’s alright,” Quenneville said of Kucherov.

Later in the third, Florida’s Patric Hornqvist hit Mikhail Sergachev as he was getting rid of the puck and the defenseman, off balance at the time, smacked his head into the boards. Hornqvist was not penalized for that.

There are plenty of things Hornqvist could be called for but this was not it.

It didn’t take long for Maroon — who taunted the Panthers bench in Game 2 after a skirmish with Vatrano at the end of the second period — to jump onto the ice and start challenging Hornqvist and the rest of the Panthers.

Both he and Hornqvist may or may not have mixed it up had the game resumed. Did not matter.

Both were tossed with a misconduct before the game restarted. The refs showed some rare preventative common sense.

Hard hits are a part of the game, they say, and both teams are living on the edge of what should be acceptable.

OFFICIALS NOT HELPING

The officials, throughout the series, have barely kept a lid on things.

Don’t know how hard they have tried to, either.

Perhaps the NHL Player Safety department will step in. It did after Game 1 when Sam Bennett was rightfully suspended for his charge of Coleman.

But if the league wanted to tamp things down, they had their chance after Game 1 and chose not to. There were many other plays in that game, and the ones to follow, that have been left alone.

The officials have let some plays go and called others.

Cooper said his team battled through “embellishment and no calls after no calls” so he thinks that — or at least is planting a seed — his team should have received more calls and the Panthers got one over by faking stuff.

Working the officials through the media sometimes works for the following game.

His postgame comments Saturday were meant for people aside from the reporters he was talking to.

As far as embellishment goes, perhaps he was referring to Hornqvist throwing his stick after being touched by Victor Hedman. There was no penalty called on Hedman nor should there been.

When it comes to faking stuff, maybe Vatrano didn’t have his head thrown against the dasher boards after all.

“There’s nothing wrong with message sending and tone setting. It’s part of the game and why we love it,” Cooper said. “That’s why people come in the stands and are lined up for tickets. It’s awesome. But let’s do it within the parameters of the game. There are guys with stripes on who control that. But if it’s not controlled, stuff like this happens.

”Tonight, you have superstar players lying on the ice hurt and … at times that’s tough. But you want passion on the ice, I loved it. There is so much great about it. You want passion in the game but now you’re skewed on what you’re allowed to do and not to do. It can just be frustrating.”

Players notice the lack of accountability from the officials and the league office.

Since everything, save for the Bennett hit apparently, is good to go, it has continued.

There is plenty of tape they’ll have to go through after Saturday’s game. On both sides.

Neither team were angels out there.

Can we expect more of this in Game 5?

Probably.

”We came here to win a hockey game and we did,” Cooper said as he wrapped up his comments. “We gamed it out. We’ve got better in us, we know that. We came here to win four and we’ve only won three. We still have to get another one. We have to be better with our emotions and how we don’t get caught up in the antics that are going on.

”We can be more physical, we can be a better hockey team. I like where we’re sitting in the series. Believe me, we’ll be bringing it two nights from now.”

PANTHERS ON DECK

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