Cooper: Callahan is due to score in Game 5
Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper thinks Ryan Callahan is ready to score. (USATSI)
The Tampa Bay Lightning are one of the best offensive teams in the NHL and have shown that gamebreaking ability in the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs thanks to players like Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn.
But Ryan Callahan is one top-line player who has been struggling to get going on the offensive end.
Not only did Callahan miss one game because of an emergency appendectomy, but he enters Sunday’s Game 5 in New York with just three assists (and zero goals) in 16 postseason games.
Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper thinks that goal drought, which is now up to 23 consecutive playoff games going back to the 2012-13 postseason, will “probably” end in Game 5.
“Probably tonight’s the night he’s going to score because he does that on big stages and he is probably going to do that in the building he grew up in as a hockey player,” Lighting coach Jon Cooper said after the team’s morning skate, via NHL.com’s David Satriano.
Callahan’s last playoff goal came on May 19, 2013, in a loss to the Boston Bruins when he was still a member of the Rangers. He has just two goals (both in 2013) in his last 32 playoff games over the past three years.
But Callahan contributes in other areas, whether it’s defending, causing traffic in front of the net or just providing a physical presence. Because of that, Cooper hasn’t been terribly disappointed with what he is getting from Callahan.
“Ryan Callahan brings so much to our team in the locker room, on the ice, his physical play. Defense pairings know when he’s out on the ice,” Cooper said, via NHL.com “He is a pain in the butt in front of the net and he just wears his heart on his sleeve. Everybody’s not going to score at the pace of Stamkos or Johnson or Kucherov or those guys who are scoring. But you need other guys to help carry the load and Callahan is one of those guys.”
The Lightning and Rangers are tied 2-2 in the Eastern Conference finals.
Callahan spent parts of seven seasons with the Rangers to start his career after the team selected him in the third round of the 2004 draft. After the two sides were unable to agree on a contract extension before the 2014 trade deadline he was traded to Tampa Bay in exchange for longtime Lightning star Martin St. Louis.
St. Louis has had his own scoring issues this postseason for the Rangers and finally scored his first goal of the playoffs in the Rangers’ Game 4 win.
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