Lightning looks like toast

"We are still playing on Tuesday. We are still alive. Lightning head coach Jon Cooper presents a comprehensive list of all things positive about the Tampa prelims, which could actually end on Tuesday, but not as anyone would have predicted. .

It's not just that the Lightning lost 3-0 against the Blue Jackets. The 62 wins of the Lightning, with the most points of all teams since 1996, lose 3-0 against the Blue Jackets crossed stars, who have never won a playoff series of their existence, and they get massacre. End the first period of the first match. The last time the Lightning remembered how he played hockey, even less was like the winners of the Presidents' Trophy, and Columbus dominated Tampa 12-2. It's the first time of the season that Tampa is losing three straight games.

"If you look at the big picture, I do not think it helps us," Ryan McDonagh said, and he's right, in that the whole situation looks like one of the biggest collapses of the history of the NHL and that the Lightning probably does not do it. I want to insist on that, but it's wrong, in the sense that even watching Sunday's 3-1 defeat in Columbus is pretty ugly. The Lightning has not seen its best scorer and best defender (Nikita Kucherov was suspended and Victor Hedman is injured), and Steven Stamkos had more sucker punches than shots on goal:

The Lightning will try to maintain its performance of the third period, scoring 17 shots and halving the deficit, although they can not beat Sergei Bobrovsky a second time. It was the first period since the start of the series that this team looked like the best team on the ice, but it's hard to understand why the Lightning has struggled so much. They're outclassed at every stage of the game, so much so that if you did not know better, you'd say the Blue Jackets are the most talented team. The local newspaper reproaches the operation of Tampa for its lack of "grain", which is a little tired but also an extremely natural reaction. When a series defies any explanation, there is always an explanation to be found in the immaterial.

All this is detrimental to the reputation of the Blue Jackets, who do not really sit back and watch the Lightning fight. They dominate both ends of the ice and in special teams. Bobrovsky leads Andrei Vasilevskiy. They are one win from the first playoff series in franchise history. (Their local newspaper credits him for "grit." It's funny how it works.)

This series is not over, or at least it is less successful than in other sports. Four NHL teams have returned from a 3-0 series deficit, including two over the last decade. One of them even won the Cup. If the Lightning remains the best hockey team (and it's the kind of thing that usually does not change over the course of a week), that will not be enough. They will also have to face adversity and pressure for the first time this year and they will have to be extremely lucky. Otherwise, a historically good team will do the wrong kind of story.