POSTGAME REACTION: Tampa Bay Lightning vs Toronto Maple Leafs, 4/24/23.

Alex just how do you process a result like that difficult difficult to process at the at the moment obviously having that lead and letting it slip away is tough but we got to get over it we got a game to win so we look forward to the next game what happened there in the third period that changed the tide for you guys you know they’re a good team um they’re Big Time Players came through in a big way I think we just sat back a little bit too much uh maybe a little bit too comfortable

with that lead how do you and your teammates plan to uh bounce back going on a road for a game five yeah just a consistent play I think in the first two periods tonight we’re we’re a really good team just like the game before so if we can be consistent in that throughout a whole game I like our chances what were some of the things in the first two periods that you guys thought that you did well just make it hard on them I mean when you look at our four check we didn’t spend a

lot of time in our d-zone when you make their skilled players play a lot of you know playing their d-zone a lot it’s hard on them um and

they’re so they they get tired and they don’t have enough energy to play ozone so that was a great job but in the third just wasn’t there I know you’re not going to care about this after after a loss but finally breaking through and scoring and then getting two goals just what it mean to kind of rip the seal off for you yeah it’s been uh it felt

good to get that first one obviously felt pretty confident throughout the game but yeah that’s uh not something I’m too worried about right now Alex Toronto had 10 block shots in the first period but Knight of them they’re just standing there just couldn’t get it to the net yeah that’s uh that’s what it seemed like it was uh like I didn’t think we were sitting back we just you know their first one they scored was complete we just got way out of our structure and gave up a rush we should have never gave up um

and then in the end could kill a penalty and seeing eye single goes into third and all of a sudden you’re down uh did we probably we you know did was that what’s that cliche played not to lose yeah I mean you could look at that now guys were trying it I think we were just maybe there was a little bit of mindset of you know we’ll just close this one out but um obviously Toronto different ideas and uh you know good for them that we uh it’s tough to come back on the road and

in a playoff game and they did and um Gotta Give Them credit for it these Airlines you know it was it was it was all going good like listen in the end special teams became a factor in the game they got two big Power Play Goals in the end and we didn’t cash in on our chance in the earlier the third you could take one of those away or we get one different story so it was a difference John has two games that you did a lot of good things and they come out empty-handed how

frustrating is is that you know in terms of you know the process yeah it’s uh it’s tough because if you look at the big picture you’re right we’ve done a ton of good things and we’ve scored enough goals to win uh in the end you got to keep them out of the net can’t be given up this amount of goals I don’t care regular season playoffs especially you’re going to give up five goals not sure you deserve to win the game uh you you put four on the board that should be a win we didn’t

so in the end you got to defend and you got to keep the puck out of your net and we didn’t do it enough and uh again credit to the lease yeah no who’s got anybody else yep coach a lot of their goals are on deflections that’s tough on vasilevski isn’t it well it’s tough on any goalie so is it your job as a Defender you got to get sticks and you got to give your goalie a chance to see the puck and and some of these we haven’t so um yeah I I don’t the

Matthews power play goal that’s a deflection but that’s just a world-class tip by him I think the whole thing they knew what they were doing so it’s a little tough to navigate your way through that when you’re short-handed um but yeah you’re right like it seems like some of those are stinging us we’ve got to be better at that for sure angry after the last game what was the feeling like in the locker room and what would you say the one big thing you guys got to focus on in game five uh I don’t know

about talking about what we have to really focus on um but I think we gotta look at the big picture here and say we are still coming to the rink so it seems not done yet