![]() They wanted to hit Victor Hedman every time he went back for a puck, and the Norris Trophy winner was not himself in that series after a late-season injury. The Blue Jackets’ game plan in 2019 involved taking away Tampa Bay’s transition game through the neutral zone. And those things you have to do are sometimes tougher. They’re very good at finding a way to win, and you have to sacrifice something you really want to do. “I don’t think they were stubborn in their ways. “They checked, and they didn’t turn the puck over like they did the first couple games of the series,” Tortorella said. This Lightning group can adapt to whatever style of team they’re facing, Tortorella said. Would they dump it in? I thought we were successful that way.” But we just concentrated on basically not giving them odd-man rushes and see if they’d get stubborn. They’d try to beat us offensively,” Tortorella said. “Back then, we felt they were going to play one way. Cooper has even called them the “greatest show on ice.” That wasn’t necessarily the case in the spring of 2019, when the Lightning was coming off an NHL-record tying 62-win regular season. Tortorella used the Lightning’s 4-1 victory over the Rangers in Tuesday’s Game 4 as an example. It’s a true credit to their organization that was willing to swallow a little bit and say, ‘You know, we’ve got to change.’” They ate it and realized they had to change and play a little differently. Sometimes you’ve got to eat it, and when you eat it, you might still be stubborn and not want to change anything. “That (2019) Lightning team was all-world when they came into the playoffs, and I don’t think they respected us. I think it was a mindset,” said Tortorella, who is now an ESPN analyst. What’s been the biggest change Tortorella has seen? The Lightning have won 10 consecutive series since, and are tied 2-2 with the Rangers heading into Thursday’s Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final.
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