TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The Lightning handled their business on their home ice, taking games one and two to start the Stanley Cup Final.
As they head north to Montreal, they look to keep that momentum going, but will be without Alex Killorn yet again. The Lightning forward also missed game two after suffering a lower-body injury blocking a shot in game one.
Head Coach Jon Cooper said the team will go with their same lines from game two which includes forward Mathieu Joesph in the line-up to replace Killorn.
The lines the Lightning went with in game two yielded a 3-1 win for the Bolts, but there’s still some tweaking to do for game three as they now change venues.
“We have a plan at home and we have a little different plan on the road,” Cooper said. “You kind of adapt as the game goes on. It’s different too. The way the game is playing-out too is a different. Game one, less whistles, a lot of flow, not many penalties. Game two felt like we had all those penalties early and power plays early and then they had power plays and it was four on three. You just kind of play and not worry as much about the match-ups. But we’ve got a little plan in place. Hopefully it works out.”
In regards to Joseph stepping in again, even though he only had 6:23 of ice time with 4 hits, Cooper was pleased with his contributions– especially since that was his first game action since game three of the Florida Panthers series more than a month ago.
“That’s the one thing,” Cooper said. “When you play a couple months after the season ends and you don’t get in games, you have to keep yourself ready. You look at (Alexander) Volkov last year. He didn’t play for 64 days in the bubble and gets in the last game and has a great impact on it. You never know when your name’s going to be called. You just have to be ready when it is. For (Mathieu Joseph), he didn’t play a ton in the game. I hope to get him in a little bit more today. Special teams kind of dictated that. He’s using his speed and he can really push defenses back. He’s got a good compete level. (Joseph’s) got skill. He can play the entire season with us. He had a positive impact on the game and I expect him to do a little bit more today.”