Lightning vs. Panthers: Familiar Foes, Fresh Stakes

There are minimal areas that separate the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, two National Hockey League franchises that can seemingly, set their watches to an annual postseason meeting.

The rivals will meet for the fourth time in the past five postseasons beginning on Tuesday (8:30 p.m., ESPN) at Amalie Arena, and no one expects this series to be anything but ultra-competitive.

“We’ve played Florida numerous times,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper told the media in a postgame conference following his team’s regular-season finale against the New York Rangers on Thursday. “There is nothing that (Panther coach Paul Maurice) doesn’t know about us and I don’t know about them.”

That was indicative in this year’s regular season matchups, in which the two teams split the four games.

“There are no secrets,” Cooper continued.

If there is an aspect in which the Panthers hold an advantage, and the slightest advantage may end up being the difference in this series, it is postseason experience among its forward depth.

Both teams are loaded with NHL veterans who have played, and won, when the pressure is the greatest. However, the back end of the Lightning scorers, though really good players, lack playoff experience, which is accentuated with the absence of injured forward Oliver Bjorkstrand.

“This is when your hard work pays off,” Cooper said of the postseason. “Don’t waste it, because every shift, every moment, is heightened.”

The Lightning rolled out forward lines for Monday’s practice, and three of their bottom six forwards (Conor Geekie, Zemgus Girgensons, and Gage Goncalves) have never played in a postseason game, and a fourth player (Mitchell Chaffee) has just five games (all last year against Florida) on his resume.

Conversely, only Florida winger Mackie Samoskevich lacks postseason experience.

Samoskevich, 22, has had an impressive rookie (he played in seven games a year ago) season with 31 points in 13-plus minutes of ice time each night. He finished this season a minus seven in plus/minus play, though.

Cooper has mostly penciled in an 11/7 forward/defenseman lineup, which is likely to continue in this series. That may negate Chaffee being in the lineup, as Cooper utilizes veteran Luke Glendening because of his proclivity to succeed in the face-off circle.

Glendening has won 57 percent of his face-off opportunities this season, which is by far the best on the team (Anthony Cirelli is at 50.1 percent). In power play opportunities, which tend to be fewer in the postseason, face-offs are critically important.

A year ago, Cooper utilized Chaffee in the postseason more than Glendening by nearly three minutes per game, and he does bring a much more potent offensive game than Glendening.

Chaffee, who has played in just 15 games since the Four Nations break, scored a dozen goals this season and finished with 18 points.

“(Chaffee) is playing with more confidence,” Cooper said after Chaffee scored a goal in a 6-2 win over Columbus last month.

In the case of Goncalves, who was on the right side of the third line Monday morning with Geekie and center Nick Paul, yes, he has no playoff experience, but good Hell, he has played really well since late January.

“Gage is playing with a couple of good players (on his line),” Cooper said earlier this month after Goncalves shot in a pair of goals against Detroit. “But he is helping them as much as they are helping him.”

In his first 26 games this season, Goncalves managed just two points (one goal, one assist). He was sent to Syracuse for a couple of weeks in mid-January and returned with vengeance.

In his 34 games since returning to Tampa, Goncalves totaled 18 points (seven goals and 11 points).

For Girgensons, his situation is an odd one.

After spending his entire career with a struggling franchise (Buffalo), the 31-year-old will be playing in his first postseason game, despite having played in 770 regular season games.

The fact that 20-year-old Geekie and Girgensons have identical playoff resumes is, well, odd.

For Geekie, Tuesday’s game will probably be a blur due to his excitement.

He has played well (two points in three games) since returning recently following a two-month stay in Syracuse, which Cooper said served its purpose.

“His game,” Cooper said, “to be honest, he just looks more mature. He looks like a kid, who went down (to Syracuse). It was a different transition for him. He had been up here for a good part of the year and then went down there.

“(The American Hockey League) is just a great development league. I spent three years there (as a coach) before I came to the NHL. That is where you learn.”

The series will open on Tuesday with Game 2 being played in Amalie Arena on Thursday (6:30 p.m., TBS/TruTV/Max).

The series heads to Sunrise for Game 3 on Saturday at 1 p.m. (TBS/TruTV/Max).

“It’s a fun time of the year,” Cooper said. “We want to enjoy it, but there is a lot of work ahead of us.”