Cooper: They were playing the conference final, we were playing Game 38

Jon Cooper likened his team's performance Friday night to one he might see in midseason.

"They were playing in the Eastern Conference Final, and we were playing in Game 38," the Tampa Bay Lightning head coach told reporters, including Sportsnet's Arash Madani, after a 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals in Game 1.

The Lightning fell behind 2-0 in the first period after having a Nikita Kucherov goal disallowed thanks to a too-many-men penalty, then found themselves trailing 4-0 in the second intermission before showing signs of life that came too little, too late in the third.

Washington outshot Tampa Bay 9-2 in the first period and 25-10 through 40 minutes, as they put the game out of reach.

"You could tell right away, you look up at the clock, we had a lot of zone time and we didn't have a shot on goal," Cooper said, according to Bryan Burns of the Lightning's official website. "That kind of summed up the way our night was about to go."

For the record, the Lightning won Game 38 handily, shutting out the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-0 on New Year's Eve.