It’s time for the Tampa Bay Lightning to flip the proverbial switch.
Tampa Bay closed the regular season against the New York Rangers on Thursday and will now prepare for Game One of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, set for 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at AMALIE Arena against the Florida Panthers.
The Lightning fell 4-0 in Thursday’s regular season finale at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers to finish 2024-25 with a 47-27-8 record. The team’s 102 standings points are their most in any of the three previous regular seasons.
“As I told the guys after the game, there’s 82 regular season games,” coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s a rollercoaster ride, there’s ups and downs. But with this group there were so many more ups than downs. And anytime a little adversity hit, these guys found a way to navigate their way through it. But they were a pretty consistent group all the way through both offensively and defensively, and most notably defensively.”
We’ve really had a strong year in that department. Our goaltending has been great, but a strong effort to be better in that area (defense), and it’s helped our game…It’s been a great group to coach and this is your hard work paying off. Now it’s, ‘Don’t waste it’ because every shift, every moment is heightened. It’s why we do it. It’s a fun time of year, and so you want to enjoy it, but a lot of work ahead now.”
Thursday’s regular season finale was tied 0-0 through 20 minutes as the teams combined for six shots on goal in the first period. The Rangers got the scoring started with a shorthanded goal early in the second period.
Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck forced a turnover at the Lightning defensive blueline and fed the puck to J.T. Miller atop the circles before accepting the give-and-go pass at the bottom of the right circle and scoring into the right side of the Lightning net to make it 1-0 New York 1:02 into the second period.
The Rangers furthered their lead in period three.
Chris Kreider collected the puck in the high slot after his initial shot was blocked and fired his second attempt into the top right corner of the Lightning net 4:02 into the third period for a 2-0 lead.
Mika Zibanejad made it 3-0 New York with his one-timer from the left faceoff dot with 7:10 left in the game before scoring again with 3:36 remaining near the left post for a 4-0 lead.
Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson ended with 20 saves for the visitors, while the Rangers received a 27-save shutout from goalie Igor Shesterkin.
Despite not ending on a victory, defenseman Ryan McDonagh said the team has liked its game over the last 10 regular season games. Like Cooper, McDonagh also acknowledged that this season has had positives and negatives.
“The guys’ effort all the way through the season, it takes a ton of sacrifice, a ton of buy-in and obviously a lot of execution by everybody. We need everybody at different moments,” McDonagh said. “There’s obviously a lot of ups and downs, and we’re not going to take this opportunity to play in the playoffs for granted because not every team gets there and it’s a privilege. We’re going to try to make the most of it here.”
The Lightning finished the regular season as the NHL’s top scoring team, netting a league-high 292 goals through 82 games. They finished first in goals per game (3.60) and were fourth in goals against per game (2.62). They had the league’s fifth-best power play (26.2%) and sixth-best penalty kill (81.5%).
Now Tampa Bay will look to build on that success in the postseason, starting with Tuesday’s series opener at AMALIE Arena. The Lightning are preparing for their eighth consecutive Stanley Cup Playoffs appearance, the longest run in franchise history.
“I think this team knows what they have to do to win,” forward Nick Paul said. “When we start forcing plays and creating turnovers and high-risk, our game doesn’t go so well. When we’re simple and hard and we’re winning all the battles, moving our feet, going North and just continuously building each shift, that’s when our game’s the best. We know what it takes, and I think every guy in here is ready to buy in.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
1. Mika Zibanejad, NYR (2 Goals, Assist)
2. Igor Shesterkin, NYR (27-save shutout)
3. Chris Kreider, NYR (Goal, Assist)
