TAMPA, Fla. _ By now there are no more secretes. After six games over 11 days, the Lightning know all the Capitals' habits, and the Caps know all the Lightning's.
To Lightning coach Jon Cooper the outcome of Wednesday's Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Amalie Arena is going to come down to one detail.
"A little bit of will," Cooper said Tuesday. "You have to will yourself for this moment."
The will to do whatever it takes to reach the Stanley Cup Finals _ a hard check, a blocked shot, to not retaliate when you believe retaliation is in order, to stay within the game plan, to stay calm when something does not go right.
To Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin, the stakes have never been higher as he plays for the first trip the Cup Finals in his career.
"This is the biggest game of my life," he said.
To Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman, a second trip to the finals in four years is going take one thing.
"We need our best game of our lives," he said. "That's what we have to do."
How can the Lightning do that?
"First period of Game 5, bottle that up and do it three times. We should be OK," Cooper said.
The Lightning played the best period of this playoff run that night, scoring twice and out-shooting the Caps 13-4. Since then, it has been all Capitals. The Lightning have not scored since Ryan Callahan knocked in a rebound 33 seconds into the second period of Game 5.
So how can the Lightning win?
Duh, outscore the Caps.
And how can it do that?
Here are a few suggestions:
Shoot, shoot and shoot some more.
The Lightning had nine shots on goal over the final two periods in Game 5 and only 24 during Game 6, when they lost 3-0.
The Lightning had 59 shot attempts in Game 6. Problem was, 24 were blocked and 15 missed the net.
"That's not going to cut it," Hedman said of the 24 shots that reached Caps goalie Braden Holtby. "We got to get more shots on net. We have to get double digits every period. We got to shoot the puck more. We're passing up some opportunities. Their goalie made some good saves on some of the chances we had, but bottom line is we got to shoot the puck more."
