By John Romano, Times Sports Columnist
Friday, April 29, 2011
WASHINGTON
He told you how the Capitals could win.
They had a roster of stars. They had a hot, young goaltender. They had playoff experience, and they had recently embraced a new defensive philosophy.
Yes, Guy Boucher was full of reasons why Washington was the superior team when compared to his rumpled group of misfits.
Here's what Boucher didn't tell you:
The Lightning could win, too.
And when Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals ended with Tampa Bay leading 4-2, the Lightning coach finally explained how.
"Character, plain and simple," Boucher said. "What happened in the first series is we started to enjoy adversity. And in the games when we get tough moments, our players can manage them a lot better than they could in the beginning of that series.
"So that's the one thing I see A lot of calm. We've got energy but with a lot of calm. And that's pretty impressive."
It was impressive when you consider the Lightning blew an early first-period lead then went 10 consecutive minutes without even taking a shot.
It was impressive when you consider Simon Gagne and Pavel Kubina were knocked to the ice early in the evening and were back at the hotel before the final horn sounded.
It was impressive when you consider the Capitals took more shots, had more power plays, delivered more hits and won more faceoffs and still came up short.
This is how the Lightning wins:
With Ryan Malone racing to the boards to fight for a puck that, by all rights, should have been on its way out of the Washington zone.
Malone got control of the puck and quickly spotted Vinny Lecavalier a few feet away. Lecavalier passed to Eric Brewer, who sent it to Steven Stamkos in front of the net, where he banged it past Michal Neuvirth for the go-ahead goal late in the second period.
"I told him afterward what a great play that was," Lecavalier said. "Winning that battle was huge. That was the goal, basically. That was the play that made the goal.
"He gave the guy a good shoulder and protected that puck and fought for us."
This is how the Lightning wins:
On the backs of guys with small paychecks, quiet profiles and big hearts.
Since Game 5 of the first round against Pittsburgh, the Lightning has rewritten the story of this season.
And there was a stretch from that Game 5 on Saturday until the middle of this Game 1 on Friday when the Lightning scored 10 consecutive goals by guys not named Stamkos, Lecavalier, Gagne or Marty St. Louis.
It has been Sean Bergenheim, and Steve Downie. It has been Teddy Purcell and Dominic Moore. It has been guys from the second line, from the third line and maybe from the lunch line.
"Those guys have been huge. Their play speaks for itself," Stamkos said. "You look at Bergie, again. Look at Downie, again. Those guys have been instrumental in our success, and you have to have that in the playoffs.
"Obviously, the big guys have to step up and help the team. But you can't count on them every night, so you need to have that balanced scoring. And those guys have been unbelievable for us the entire year."
This is how the Lightning wins:
With one teammate picking up another. Brett Clark's turnover in the first period led to Washington's first goal when Alexander Semin was given a free shot directly in front of Dwayne Roloson.
Two periods later, Clark had another turnover behind the net. And this time, Roloson stopped a point-blank shot from Marco Sturm to protect a 3-2 lead.
"Roli has been there whenever we needed him," Stamkos said.
This is how the Lightning wins:
With stars willing to be grinders. St. Louis did not score a goal Friday night. He had only one shot.
But he did use his body to block three Washington shots.
Stamkos, who did most of his scoring from the outside during the regular season, scored his third playoff goal by standing firm in front of the net.
This is what Boucher means when he says he is looking for winners and not stars. And when the team got in the locker room afterward, Boucher told everyone that Stamkos was his star of the game.
"He battled. He battled on the boards. He did the little things that younger guys don't normally do. To me, that was his best game," Boucher said. "Marty did the same things. Vinny did the same things, blocking shots, back checking, paying the price.
"Right now, we've got a team out there. We're playing like a team."
And for a moment, Boucher pauses as he considers, once again, the task at hand.
"Because there's no way we should skate with those guys. That's a machine they've got."
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