TAMPA Youth Pavel Zacha Jersey , Fla. (AP) Jon Cooper searched for adequate words to describe the feeling of coming within one victory of playing for the Stanley Cup.The Tampa Bay Lightning have done it twice in the past three years. And it hurts.”It’s everything from agonizing to angry to disappointed to shock,” the coach said Thursday, less than 24 hours after one of the most successful seasons in franchise history came to a screeching halt with a 4-0 loss to Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final.”I’m sure that’s going to turn into proud and happy for our group,” he added. ”There are so many good emotions about coaching this team … but the emotions of how it ended is tough.”After compiling the best record in the Eastern Conference during the regular season, eliminating the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins in the first two rounds of the playoffs, and rebounding from losing the first games of the conference final to take a 3-2 series lead, the Lightning truly believed this was their year.Now, general manager Steve Yzerman and Cooper face decisions about what needs to be tweaked.The Lightning won Game 7 of the conference final against the Rangers in 2015, advancing to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in franchise history. They made it back to the East final, only to lose to the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games two years ago.”If anybody sits and says it was an unsuccessful season, I have to question that. You look back at this team. All the accomplishments of the regular season, and then to be one game away from getting to the Stanley Cup Final,” Cooper said, his voice trailing off.”Now it’s just solving that piece of the puzzle,” the coach added, ”getting over the top.”With a talented roster that’s both deep and fairly young, there won’t be wholesale changes.Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy Authentic Taylor Hall Jersey , a Vezina Trophy finalist in his first full season as a starter, is just 23 years old.Leading scorer Nikita Kucherov is 24, Norris Trophy finalist Victor Hedman is 27, and emerging star Brayden Point is just 22.Even captain Steven Stamkos, completing his 10th NHL season, is only 28.”What were we missing? A couple of goals in Game 7,” Cooper said. ”You can sit here and pick apart all you want of what went wrong, it was one game. We didn’t score and we lost the game. They were opportunistic and scored, and they advanced. … It’s razor-thin how close this league is.”Yzerman said there are a number of areas where the Lightning need to get better moving forward, including defensively.The GM, however, rejected the notion that somehow the season was a failure because a team with such high expectations didn’t get back to the championship round.”It’s really difficult to win the Stanley Cup, and if you’re going to measure every year strictly on it’s a failure if we win or not, I don’t think I look at it that way,” Yzerman said.”There’s a process and there’s no definitive timeline for it. Just continue to improve, continue to hang around, I guess Womens Will Butcher Jersey , and we’re going to win one of these things,” the GM added. ”It’s not a failure. It’s a disappointment at this stage, but we’re not sitting here saying we’re the best team by a mile. We realize there’s a bunch of good teams out there, a group of teams that could win the Stanley Cup.”Cooper said one thing it’s important to not do this summer is over-react.”It’s hard to explain just how hard it is to get here,” the coach said. ”There are 30 teams who are going to get Monday morning quarterbacked, and one team that is not. You just have to build on your strengths and keep getting better and come back next year stronger than ever.”— PITTSBURGH (AP) — Brian Boyle scored three times for his first career hat trick, and the New Jersey Devils beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1 on Monday.Boyle got his natural hat trick on “Hockey Fights Cancer” night in Pittsburgh. It included two power-play goals and two redirections in front of the net.The 33-year-old Boyle was diagnosed with a form of bone marrow cancer at the beginning of training camp last season. He underwent treatment, returned to the lineup last November and won the NHL’s Masterton Trophy, best exemplifying qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.Will Butcher had a goal and two assists for New Jersey, and Travis Zajac scored his fourth goal. The Devils stopped a three-game slide with their first road win.Jamie Oleksiak scored for the Penguins, who have dropped four in a row.CAPITALS 4, OILERS 2WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored on the power play, backup goaltender Pheonix Copley made 31 saves and Washington ended its two-game losing streak.The defending Stanley Cup champions came out flying two days after a mistake-filled overtime loss to Dallas. Jakub Vrana scored on his first turn with the fourth line after being demoted, and linemate Devante Smith-Pelly scored on the group’s second shift a few minutes later as the Capitals jumped all over Cam Talbot and the Oilers.Ovechkin’s 11th goal of the season was his 234th career on the power play, tying him with Marcel Dionne for eighth on the career list. T.J. Oshie also scored by firing short-side on Talbot, who allowed four goals on 23 shots in his first start since Oct. 30.Oilers captain Connor McDavid extended his point streak to eight games with his 10th goal of the season. Leon Draisaitl scored for Edmonton http://www.officialislanders.com/authentic-adidas-adam-pelech-jersey , which lost for just the second time in seven games.BRUINS 2, STARS 1, OTBOSTON (AP) — Brad Marchand scored a power-play goal 4:29 into overtime, lifting the Bruins to the victory.David Pastrnak also scored on the power play for Boston, which had lost two of three. Tuukka Rask made 24 saves.Radek Faksa had a short-handed goal for the Stars, who are 3-1-1 on a six-game trip. Former Bruins goaltender Anton Khudobin stopped 33 shots.Boston had a two-man power play in overtime after Jason Dickinson and Esa Lindell were whistled for minors 11 seconds apart. Marchand banked in a shot off the far post from the bottom of the right circle.CANADIENS 4, ISLANDERS 3, SONEW YORK (AP) — Joel Armia scored in the fifth round of the shootout to send Montreal to the road win.The Canadiens rallied from two goals down to win for the fifth time in the last six meetings with the Islanders. Max Domi and Jonathan Drouin each had a goal and an assist, Artturi Lehkonen also scored and Noah Juulsen added two assists.Antti Niemi started in place of Carey Price and made 21 saves before stopping all five of New York’s attempts in the shootout.Casey Cizikas scored twice and Valtteri Filppula also had a goal for the Islanders, who had won five in a row. Thomas Greiss stopped 32 shots and the first four skaters in the tiebreaker.FLYERS 5, COYOTES 2GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Claude Giroux had two goals and an assist, Calvin Pickard stopped 35 shots and Philadelphia ended Arizona’s five-game winning streak.The Flyers jumped on the Coyotes early, going up 2-0 after first-period goals from Giroux and Shayne Gostisbehere. Sean Couturier also scored and Oskar Lindblom added an empty-net goal for Philadelphia, which completed its four-game trip 3-0-1.Pickard made his second straight start after Michael Neuvirth was placed on injured reserve and Brian Elliott was injured colliding with teammate Travis Konecny during practice Sunday.Pickard was sharp most of the night, giving up Alex Galchenyuk’s power-play goal in the second period and Michael Grabner’s goal late in the third.