Team captain Steven Stamkos and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy apparently are in Tampa Bay Lightning General Manager Julien BriseBois’ doghouse.
“When something like this happens to us – something that should never happen to us – it’s a nightmare,” BriseBois shouted in an otherwise funereal locker room Saturday after the Lightning lost a game for the first time in this abbreviated NHL season, beaten 5-2 in Columbus by the Blue Jackets.
“The Blue Jackets!” coach Jon Cooper exploded. “What, losing four in a row to Columbus to start the 2019 playoffs and getting pushed to five games – five – by them in the first round last August wasn’t bad enough? How many times did we lose one in row last season?”
“Uh, I think ten,” Stamkos said, “but …”
“Shut up!” BriseBois snarled. “That’s ten too many. We won the Cup without you – well, except for the three or so minutes you played in the finals – and we can win it without you again. Do you think they’re going to just give us another Stanley Cup?
“One in a row! It’s unforgivable and it’s up to me to prevent the losing from killing our opportunity to win another Cup. If ‘Stammer’ and ‘Vassy’, these so-called All-Stars, can’t do the job, I’ll find players who can.”
Cooper expressed a willingness to take a demotion to Syracuse, the Lightning’s AHL farm team, if BriseBois felt it would help him regain his touch, although insiders said it was more of an attempt by Cooper to save his job.
Stamkos said he was ashamed to be wearing the C on his jersey because he was unable to personally pull his teammates out of the doldrums Saturday and offered to turn the title of captain over to rookie Cal Foote. Vasilevskiy said his goalie mask hid the tears he wept after the loss.
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