The Lightning often say their primary focus going into each season is to earn a playoff spot. And as they embark on their final multi-game road trip of the season, they likely will return with a postseason berth in hand.
But they’re not preoccupied with all the ifs, ands and buts regarding what it will take to clinch a spot. Instead, having a trust that if they continue to play the way that helped them sweep their three-game homestand, it will all work out.
“When you start worrying about what other teams are doing, you’re really losing your focus on what your team should be doing,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said Monday. “And to me, that’s always been a priority, that you don’t worry about them, worry about us, and all that other stuff will take care of itself. And wherever we land, we land, and we’ll be ready for whoever that is.”
The clinching scenarios are complicated, especially since there are so many teams still in the mix for the final wild-card spots. But if the Lightning win the first game of their road trip Tuesday against the Islanders — and Montreal, Columbus and the Rangers all lose their next game, the Lightning could clinch a playoff berth as early as Wednesday night.
Ask captain Victor Hedman about the clinching scenarios and he said he knows that everything else aside, two more wins put them in.
“We want to do that obviously as soon as we can,” Hedman said. “The sooner we do it, the more wins we have, and better spot we have. So we had nine games left, and they’re super important games, all of them. So we’re not focusing too much on what’s going on around the league, but we know if we win most of the games, we have a good chance.”
Then there’s the Lightning’s pursuit of the Atlantic Division. The Lightning (43-25-5, 91 points) go into Tuesday’s game in second place in the division, which if the season ended, would give them home ice in a first-round meeting with the Panthers, whom they own a tiebreak over by having more regulation wins. Both teams trail Toronto by three points, though the Leafs have played one more game than both Tampa Bay and Florida.
Cooper would often say that playoff seedings don’t matter. The Lightning have been eliminated in the first round after winning the Presidents’ Trophy; they’ve won the Stanley Cup as the third team in the division. You just want a seat at the table, and aim to play your best game when it matters most.
But this year they want to have home ice as long as they can, especially given their success at home; their 27-8-2 record (56 points) at Amalie Arena is the second-best home mark in the Eastern Conference. The Lightning are an under-.500 team on the road (16-17-3, 35 points).
The Lightning have one game against Toronto and Florida left this season, both at home next week. And while they have no more back-to-backs on their schedule, Toronto has one remaining and Florida has two.
“Our division is stacked,” Hedman said. “We’ve obviously seen Toronto and Florida for many years in a row. And it doesn’t really matter who’s on the other side. But at the end of the day, we want to get home ice. We’ve shown all year how good we are playing at home. So that’s the main goal, is trying and finish in one of those (top two) spots.”
