Jon Cooper: Lightning no longer have 'panic button'

The Tampa Bay Lightning are without Steven Stamkos and Anton Stralman among a collection of regulars out of action with injury and other ailments.

But they aren't lacking in know-how specific to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"There's no real panic button anymore," head coach Jon Cooper said Friday, adding that the Lightning have seen and been through everything over these last two Stanley Cups Playoff bids.

The latest second-season experience ended with Jason Garrison's overtime winner 94 seconds into the extra frame of Game 4, a goal that saw the Bolts move to within a win of a return trip to the Eastern Conference Final after a 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders.

"We're just getting contributions from everybody," Cooper said. "Last game it was the (Brian) Boyle line that bailed us out. Tonight it was a defenseman."

Really, those contributions from Boyle, Garrison, and the like have been of the supplemental variety.

Goalie Ben Bishop was brilliant once again, keeping his club in the game with 16 first-period saves before the team's lone attacking constant, Nikita Kucherov, brought them level with his postseason-leading eighth goal a little less than eight minutes into the third.

"He's proven he's not a one-hit wonder," Cooper said of Kucherov.

The further that the Lightning delve into the playoffs, the more plausible that they'll atone for last season's shortcomings.

Stralman could be fit to return before this series is up, while the Lightning reportedly remain of the mind that the captain will return to action this season from ongoing blood clot treatment.