I won’t waste anyone’s time with a long rant about how the Tampa Bay Lightning should know better, or that they played well below their talent level, or how the New York Rangers showed how “tough” they are (they showed nothing special on Wednesday night. This was always how this series was going to start, a slap in the face loss after a long rest waiting for the series to start. We should’ve all expected this; we’ve only seen it for what feels like the entirety of Jon Cooper’s tenure as Lightning coach.
I don’t know the actual numbers, but thinking back throughout this core’s run of playoff contention (2014-present), long rest periods between series or games (even in the regular season) have nearly always been letdowns.