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Tampa Bay Lightning to face Matt Murray in Game 6 |
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TAMPA, Fla. - The Penguins goaltending rotation spins back to Matt Murray for Game 6 as Pittsburgh looks to stave off elimination.
One game after starting Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguins flip back to the goaltender who took them this far in the first place in the 21-year-old Murray.
But for the Lightning, who they face in net probably doesn't really register with them at this point and head coach Jon Cooper was asked on Monday which direction he might go.
"I guess in the back of my head, you think, if you were in that situation, what would you do?,'' Cooper said "I don't know. I'll have to answer that question after this series is over what I would have done.''
In all honesty, who the opposing goaltender is for the game shouldn't matter to the Lightning. As any player or coach will tell you, while you may look at certain tendencies of opposing netminders, it's all about how the team goes out and plays. Chances have to be created no matter who is in net.
"You're not just facing the goaltender, you're facing the Pittsburgh Penguins,'' Cooper said. "He's one player on their team. You have to beat their team. It's not just beating one guy. So whoever's playing in net doesn't matter to us. Somehow, no matter who's in there, you've got to
find a way to beat him.''
And in this series, there has to be a lot of credit given to Cooper and his coaching staff in how Tampa Bay has played.
Through three games of this series, the Lightning looked completely over-matched, even if the series was 2-1 in favor of Pittsburgh. The Penguins had the puck a lot and forced Tampa Bay to defend for long stretches of time.
That takes a lot out of a team, especially a team like Tampa Bay that is used to possessing the puck and spending time in the offensive zone.
But heading in to Game 4, line combination changes seemed to have the desired affect.
Through three games Tampa Bay had been outshot 124-69, including giving up an incredibly 48 shots in Game 3. Since then, though Pittsburgh has continued to outshoot Tampa Bay, the gap is not quite as large with the Lightning getting 62 shots on net in the past two games, 10 fewer than the Penguins.
One of the more notable changes was putting Ryan Callahan back on to a checking line with Valtteri Filppula and J.T. Brown, a trio that worked exceptionally well down the stretch before Steven Stamkos was forced out of the lineup due to a blood clot.
"You make tweaks and adjustments throughout a series game to game, you're changing things and looking at their tendencies,'' Callahan said. "We did some things different that I thought we were successful with, but more than just your tactics or your systems, I thought
it was our energy, our compete, the way we executed was a lot better than
it was in the previous game. And I think that was the biggest adjustment rather than the Xs and Os.''
Callahan is a big part of that energy adjustment. Just the tenacity in which he plays the game exudes all over the ice and filters through to his teammates.
"Ryan Callahan is the leader in that department, there's no question,'' Cooper said. "I think a big part of our success is how he had to grind out Detroit. I don't think anyone expected the feistiness that happened in that series, and I think that helped us against the Islanders,
who are a physical team that likes to grind it out. But that win over Detroit pushed us to be able to play -- keep playing that way. And I thought we actually did that a little bit in Game 1. But this is a different series, and Pittsburgh doesn't play quite that way. I think we stopped playing that way, and tonight we showed a will in that department of being physical and kind of digging our heels in. And Callahan and (Brian) Boyle, Brown, (Cedric) Paquette, (Ondrej) Palat, you just go down the list, and those guys, that's what they were doing, and that gives us a huge
lift.''
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