Jon Cooper drops popular song title when describing Tampa's mindset

The Tampa Bay Lightning have been in this situation before, and they've found ways to overcome it. 

Right now, they trail their Round 1 Stanley Cup Playoffs series against the rival Toronto Maple Leafs two games to one after losing a heartbreaking overtime affair in Game 3 Saturday night that was highlighted by a wild brawl in the 3rd period coupled with Ryan O'Reilly's game-tying goal with just over a minute left in regulation. 

But instead of getting down on themselves for blowing an opportunity to gain the upper hand in the series, the Lightning instead are going about their business with the usual swagger that's helped them advance to the Stanley Cup Final three years in a row. 

According to head coach Jon Cooper, his team will be out for revenge in tonight's Game 4 with a particular mindset taken from the popular song.

"There was more anger than, like, depression," Cooper said of his team's mindset after the loss. "There was no, like, 'I can’t believe we lost that.' They have a little eye of the tiger going in them now."

The Lightning controlled the play for most of Saturday night, but still came up short on the scoreboard. Cooper explained that the Bolts simply need to maintain their compete level while also being "a little bit better". 

“I thought we played hard, we competed hard,” Cooper said. “When you do that, usually good things happen. We were skating. We’re being pretty physical. We were on top of things. It’s hard. Toronto’s got a good team. So you have to take advantage of the chances when you get them. 

“But, at the end, it just wasn’t quite enough. But our compete was really high in the game. So we have to make sure we do that again, because as you saw it wasn’t quite good enough. So we have to be a little bit better.”

Game 4 begins tonight at 7:30 PM from Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay, Florida.