Cooper:
What would he have done differently?
“That’s probably a better question for me at the end of the summer when I get to digest, take a step back and get out of the emotions of being upset with what happened,” Cooper said. “As a staff, you get to sit back and see what exactly went wrong. I think we’ll address the issues that went wrong in this series. No takebacks, no stepping back. All we can do is look forward and grow from the experience and try to get another kick at the can. We’ve been knocking at the door now, but this one has a different feel than the other ones. Definitely a motivating factor.”
Stamkos:
“I think it’s more execution on us,” Stamkos said. “The strength of our team is carrying the puck and making plays. Sometimes you stray from things that make you successful when you’re under pressure. You try to make the easier play instead of the play that made us successful. In terms of us executing, we kind of got away from that, and that played into their hands. They tried to clog up the neutral zone, cause us to dump pucks. They know we’re a more dangerous team when we’ve got the puck and utilize our speed. They did a good job of counteracting that.”
Former HC:
“To me, defense wins all the time, and Columbus was willing to play above the puck all the time,” said one former NHL coach. “They were willing to give the hit all the time, they’d sacrifice to play defense. They were committed the whole 60 minutes to play above the puck, and Tampa tried to beat everyone one-on-one.”
JBB:
“They executed their game plan really well, and at the end of the day, more often than not, it’s not the system, it’s not the game plan, it’s the execution,” Lightning GM Julien BriseBois said. “It falls on all of us to make sure we execute. Obviously, collectively, we failed.”
Vasi:
“I just think that the last five to 10 games in the regular season, we didn’t play our best hockey in a consistent stretch, and that’s why in the playoffs we were not that great,” Vasilevskiy said. “Columbus, on the other side, they had a hot stretch. They came ready to play, and we just weren’t ready for that.
“The Presidents’ Trophy won’t help any team to win in the playoffs unless they bring hard work, attitude.”
Cooper:
“Did winning mask the problem? It might have,” Cooper said. “But we were still winning. We were growing as a team. It’s just tough that it happens at this time and we just couldn’t recover.”
“It was much more mental, emotional than anything else,” he said. “Not to say we as coaches can’t do a thing to prepare for that and try to switch it when it happens, but I don’t think the series was about tactics and personnel adjustments.
“When you get into that pressure-packed situation, sometimes the brain gets turned off. It’s really uncomfortable not coming into form late in the season and going in (to the postseason) with bad habits. But it’s a very real thing they deal with. When habits are not sharp, bad stuff starts to happen.”
NHL HC:
“They had already seen what bad could happen to them in Game 1, and they just kept playing,” said another NHL coach. “(Columbus) was more prepared for adversity, mentally.
“I think you don’t want to play scared, but you want to be aggressive. If you have no fear, then that’s really arrogance, and you have to do something to instill a little bit of fear in your team, the fear of possibly losing.”
JBB:
“Florida hired Joel Quenneville, the Flyers hired (Alain Vigneault). They’re all really good coaches,” BriseBois said. “They’re all experienced coaches who have succeeded at the NHL level, all their organizations and all fan bases are excited to get those coaches and rightfully so. But if you look at their past record, they’ve all had disappointment in the playoffs. They’ve been swept or went up 3-0 in a series and ended up losing. That doesn’t take away from how good a coach they are.”
Craig Button:
You need brutal honesty. Humility. And it goes both ways.
“I think the players have to be part of it,” said Button, the former Flames general manager and Cup-winning executive with the Stars. “I think one of the biggest things you can’t do is not include players in this process. ‘What did you feel? What did you think of how you did? What did you think last year had to do with this year?’
“To me, good organizations get input from all the areas. ‘Nikita, what frustrated you?’ ‘Steven, this happened last year, do you see similarities?'”
Cooper:
“Is it humbling? There’s no question,” Cooper said. “This league humbles you way before you have success. And you have to know, coming in, those hurdles because eventually only one team wins and it’s just much tougher when you’re out in the middle of April instead of the middle of June.
“For all of us, we have a piece in what happened here.”
