WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jon Cooper walked into the locker room and didn't get the sense Lightning players were down in the dumps about losing the first two games of the Eastern Conference final.
"It was more kind of like an anger of like we want to get back -- like let's get Game 3 going here," Tampa Bay's coach said.
Of the 41 previous times a team lost the first two games in the conference finals, 39 went on to lose the series -- including every team that lost its first two at home.
"For us, it's all about resetting everything," defenseman Victor Hedman said Monday. "There's no panic. We're obviously not happy with losing two games on home ice, but that is not something that goes into our locker room.
"We've got the experience. We've got the guys that are in the playoffs for the first time, guys have been through this, and we're capable of handling that."
"If you just look where you stand in the series, I feel like it's a big mountain to climb," said former Lightning captain Martin St. Louis, who was on that team. "They got to focus on just winning the next game. And I truly believe if they do that, it's going to be a long series."
Asked what the Lightning needed to do better, three-time Cup-winning defenseman Ken Daneyko responded, "Where do we begin?"
"They were so responsible defensively, making good puck decisions and through the first two rounds they didn't give up a whole lot," said Daneyko, now an NHL Network analyst.
"Just mental breakdowns, mental mistakes by Tampa Bay. You never know why it turns so drastically like that when they were so sound against the Bruins. That can't happen."
For the Lightning to win one or two games, they'll need to get better production out of captain Steven Stamkos and winger Nikita Kucherov and better play out of goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who hasn't been at his best.
"He's going to have to be great," said Keith Jones, a former NHL forward and current NBC Sports analyst. "He's being challenged to look through traffic and stay up. ... Vasilevskiy's going to have to play unbelievably well unless the Capitals take a step back."
NOTES: Capitals coach Barry Trotz said C Nicklas Backstrom, who has missed three consecutive games with a right hand injury, remains day-to-day. ... Washington D Michal Kempny was fined $2,419 -- the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement -- for cross-checking Lightning F Cedric Paquette during Game 2.