Is it reassuring or scary that the Bolts played well and still lost?

TAMPA — It was lopsided, and that’s okay. Those things happen.

It tilts the odds in Florida’s favor, and that’s disappointing. Although not necessarily fatal.

Ultimately, it was completely deserved.

And that’s a problem.

The Panthers beat the Lightning 6-2 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs Tuesday night and there was nothing flukey or random about it. The Panthers looked quicker, more tenacious and, disturbingly, more like postseason survivors.

“Listen, I love this team. They try. They’re always trying, and they did that again tonight,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Sometimes, the results aren’t there. Most nights, they are. We can sit here and dissect this game all we want. Bottom line is we lost.

“Whether you lose 6-2 or you lose 1-0 in overtime, we lost the game. Turn the page and move on.”

The issue, as the series moves on, is that all the pretty passes and offensive wizardry won’t mean a thing if the Lightning can’t match Florida’s work ethic.

It’s not that the Lightning weren’t competing hard, they just weren’t as rabid as the Panthers. It seemed like most of the goals, most of the big plays, were created because the Panthers were one step ahead of the Lightning.

It was as if Florida was on a power play that never ended. Offensively or defensively, there was always someone in the right spot to make a play. Other than Brayden Point’s goal in the second period, the Panthers never seemed to be out of position.

In some ways, it felt like a continuation of last season’s first round when Florida beat Tampa Bay in five games.

That’s disturbing going forward.

It would be different if you could point to a single flaw that Tampa Bay could correct. But as wide as the margin of victory was, the Lightning controlled the action for long stretches of time. They ended up with more shots on goal (22-16), and more shots overall (60-35).

And still got their jock straps handed to them.

On top of all that, Anthony Cirelli went down with an undisclosed injury midway through the second period and, after a brief attempt at returning, missed the rest of the game. That could be a crucial injury considering Cirelli is one of Tampa Bay’s more physical players and you need as many of them as you can find against the Panthers.

“There’s a lot of things we can improve on,” captain Victor Hedman said. “Like I said, we gave up 16 shots. That’s usually a good night but they’re a good team, they’ve got a lot of good players so, for us, it’s all about refocusing.”

The Panthers were better on special teams and better at 5-on-5. Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was better than Andrei Vasilevskiy, although most of Florida’s goals were well-earned.

There’s nothing fancy about the way Florida plays, unless you think persistence is fancy.

“We’re a pretty decent defensive team and really good on the (penalty kill) and we gave up three on that,” Cooper said. “Whether they exposed us in certain areas, in the end, those are areas of strength of ours. So I’m pretty confident we can button those up.”

The Panthers are bullies by reputation, but it didn’t feel as if they intimidated the Lightning.

“I did not find tonight be a physical game,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “There were a couple of big hits going both ways.”

Florida was credited with more hits and there were a handful of after-whistle scrums, but it wasn’t close to being a blood bath. Instead, the Panthers excelled because they capitalized every time the Lightning defense gave up a sliver of space in front of the net.

“Give them credit, they played to their system through the whole game and were rewarded for it,” Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “For us, we liked some things about our game but not enough.”

You want a silver lining? You want more hope than a 6-2 result should offer?

A lot of guys in the Lightning locker room have been in this situation before and have rebounded dramatically.

According to NHL.com, teams that lose the first game of a seven-game series come back to win only 32% of the time. That sounds pretty darned ominous. Except the Lightning have lost the first game of a series 10 times since 2018 and have come back to advance 60% of the time.

Of course, a lot of those were deeper and more talented Lightning teams. And a lot of those losses were against weaker opponents than the Panthers.

Still, it’s a reason for hope.

And the Lightning could use a little optimism this morning.

John Romano can be reached at [email protected]. Follow @romano_tbtimes.

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Is it reassuring or scary that the Bolts played well and still lost?

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