TAMPA, Fla. — The Penguins are coming into Amalie Arena on Thursday night to fight for their playoff lives. With 22 games left in their season, Pittsburgh is clinging to the second wild card in the Eastern Conference, with five teams nipping furiously at their heels to knock them out.
The Lightning are comfortably sitting in the third spot in the Atlantic Division. Perhaps too comfortably. Somehow, Tampa Bay has to find a way to match desperation with urgency, “will and want,” and soon.
“We seem to face this every single year,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “So when teams look at the standings, and that’s the best word possible ... they’re desperate. And clearly we’re not playing with the same desperation our opponents are. It’s a competitive league and the margin of winning and losing is so fine. Desperation and will and want, that’s a big part of it. ...
