TAMPA, Fla. — At Friday’s end-of-season postmortem, general manager Julien BriseBois read off the many ways in which the Lightning excelled during the regular season.

They were the NHL’s top scoring team and ranked fourth in scoring defense. Despite the loss of Steven Stamkos in the left circle, their power play was fifth-best. A penalty kill with its share of new faces ranked sixth.

Those are all great things, and on paper at least BriseBois accomplished his goal of putting together a better team. Last offseason, he needed to build a squad that was better defensively and at 5-on-5. He did that, making some hard choices in the process.

But one thing this Lightning team wasn’t good at? Winning against division opponents.

The NHL playoff format pits teams against division opponents early. And the Lightning weren’t the only good team that got knocked out in the first round. The Kings had the fourth-most points (105) in the West but lost to a 101-point Oilers squad. It was Los Angeles’ fourth straight opening-round loss to Edmonton.

The path to the Stanley Cup Final goes through your division foes, and for the Lightning that meant an Atlantic Division that had five teams qualify for the postseason.

True, the Lightning weren’t at their best against the Florida Panthers; they were banged up and had some bad luck. But nothing about their regular season performance suggested they would get past Florida, let alone a Toronto team they failed to beat during the regular season.

“There’s great teams in all the divisions,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Could you make a mass argument that ours is the deepest — and five teams made the playoffs out of it — so that in of itself is quite an accomplishment for the division? (The Atlantic) has represented the East (in the Stanley Cup Final) multiple years in a row now as a team from our division.

“So, yeah, it’s a bear from Round 1. And let’s be honest, every playoff series is a bear for whatever team. Once you get in here, it is just the fine line between winning and losing, it’s so small. But I would sit here and say, in the Atlantic there’s some depth in the division.”

The Lightning were a mediocre 11-12-3 against division opponents in the regular season. They went 0-3-1 against Toronto and 2-2-0 against Florida, one of those wins coming late in the season when the Panthers were resting a bunch of regulars.

By contrast, Tampa Bay was 16-3-5 against the Metropolitan Division and 20-12-0 against the Western Conference. Take away its record against the Atlantic, and the team had a .688 points percentage.

Lightning brass always talk about how the regular season serves as a dress rehearsal for the playoffs, and in many ways that’s the case. You want to be honing your best game, but you also want to be preparing for the teams you’re going to face in the postseason. For the past three years — whether it was Florida the past two seasons or Toronto three years ago — the Lightning weren’t.

“I think for next year it’s got to be stressed right away that you’re going to have to play a certain way if you’re going to want to win in the playoffs,” said center Brayden Point. “And it’s tough to do for 82 games.

“Obviously, you’re not going to be able to play that way every night, but I think going to the next year our focus really should be just right from the get-go trying to establish an identity that is, this is how you’re going to have to win in the playoffs.”

The style of play is different in the playoffs. There’s less space, and games are more physical. Teams that advance discover different ways to score. When their top scorers find that space, they bury those chances.

Most teams that are successful in the playoffs also know the value of defense. They focus on protecting the middle of the ice, blocking shots and getting sticks in the way.

The Panthers rely on their dump-and-chase game and lean on a physical forecheck. They don’t need the puck on their sticks all the time, and they’re comfortable without it. They can push the pace knowing they’ll go into puck battles looking not just to win them but also to deliver punishment. And because they don’t need possession all the time, they mitigate their risk of turning the puck over.

Furthermore, they have faith in their system, having seen it work over two runs to the Cup Final, including one championship. They’re willing to play that style with the confidence they’ll get the scoring chances they need to win.

“You always talk about being patient in your system and patient in your game, and no doubt Florida was patient in their game and is willing to play that grinding, boring hockey, so to speak,” Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “It’s effective. And we’ve been on that side before where you just trust your system, you don’t give up much and you kind of pounce on your opportunities when they’re there and it’s not pretty.

“And you feel like at times, as the opposition, you’ve got great control of the game and you’re feeling confident about where your game’s at as a team, and you ultimately end up on the wrong side of things and kind of shaking your head, wondering how it went wrong. So, it just seems that both groups that really try to buy in and play the right way, as far as doing little things to win, and there wasn’t a lot of room out there. It’s a way you need to win in the playoffs.”

____

©2025 Tampa Bay Times. Visit tampabay.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.