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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes on the NHL playoffs. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins held Zoom sessions on Friday. The Washington Capitals and New York Islanders held Zoom sessions following Game 5 on Thursday night. 

The Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning are living in limbo in the National Hockey League bubble. 

"Are we playing Sunday? Monday? Tuesday?" Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy wondered aloud during his Friday Zoom session with the media. "We don't have that information yet, which is a little bit odd, but it is what it is and you make the best of it."

The team that makes the best of bubble life will likely be the last one standing when this strange pandemic summer tournament culminates in Edmonton​ in late September or early October. 

"People don't understand how hard it is, this bubble," Dallas Stars coach Rick Bowness told reporters after his team eliminated the Calgary Flames in a crazy game on Thursday night. "It's great that we're playing and the league is back, but it's tough. I think that game, it was a mess from both sides. It's tough to explain, but I don't think people understand how tough it is living in this bubble."

It can be even tougher when you don’t have a game to get geared up for. The NHL announced today that Dallas will get right back to work on Saturday night with Game 1 of their second-round series against the Colorado Avalanche.

The Lightning and Bruins, meanwhile, both clinched their first-round series on Wednesday and now must ​play the waiting game. If the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night then the matchups will be set in the Eastern Conference with Boston and Tampa facing off. If the Habs stay alive then Game 7 against the Flyers will go on Sunday night. An eventual upset win by Montreal earns them a date with the Lightning and means the Bruins get the New York Islanders. 

"The bottom line is, we go from the hotel to the rink and that's been our life and for the teams that advance that just continues to be your life," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "T​here has to be a lot of belief in your team and what you're doing and what you're trying to accomplish and I think that's where a lot of the focus has to be."

Cooper revealed he once scheduled a practice in the bubble simply to break things up and give the group something to do, but that won't be an ideal option moving forward as rest and recovery become more and more important.  

"There are challenges," Cooper said. "It's not a walk in the park every day being here. It's a lot of time together with your team and the benefits of having a close team and having a close staff really comes to fruition in this situation."

The set up at Hotel X on the Exhibition Place grounds in Toronto, where both the Bruins and Lightning have been staying, was praised by Cassidy who noted there's opportunities for guys to get outside at BMO Field, play pickle ball and enjoy a golf simulator. The Lightning played a baseball game on Thursday. 

With the bubble schedule likely to become more predictable moving forward, Cassidy hopes routine-oriented players will get more comfortable. 

"It will become easier when you have the final four teams here in the East," Cassidy said, "and you'll probably be playing every second night, I assume at around 7 or 8, something you're used to, and practice times will probably be more consistent so that should help everybody."

The Bruins, who saw starting goalie Tuukka Rask leave the bubble for family reasons in the first round, are among the older teams remaining and that veteran leadership helps during uncertain times. Cassidy, however, went out of his way to praise younger players like David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk for helping keep the mood light. 

"The older guys, in this circumstance, they have the children and that's probably what you miss the most here, your activities with your kids and your routine at night and those little things. So, I imagine they have some tough evenings," said Cassidy. "That's where you hope the young guys' energy will rub off on those guys if they have a bad day or miss their family so I think we found a good balance there. Having Pasta in, he always brings some of that, Jake is typically in a good mood every day at the rink." 

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Imagine being in the bubble, but being unable to play. That's life right now for Lightning sniper Steven Stamkos. Details on his status are scarce with Cooper only willing to say the rehab process continues.  

Tampa Bay defenceman Victor Hedman lauded Stamkos for staying positive and continuing to provide strong leadership even as he deals with the latest in a long line of health issues. 

"The things he's gone through in the past four or five years, you don't wish that on anyone so the way he's battled through that and come out a better player has been remarkable," said Hedman. "He's the captain for a reason and he's showed that even when he's not playing, he brings that positive energy and the positive mindset into the locker room and it rubs off on guys. We're very blessed to have a captain like that."

Stamkos hasn't played a game since Feb. 25. 

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With Stamkos sidelined, the Lightning got a big effort from 24-year-old centre Brayden Point in their series against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Point's overtime winners served as bookends in the five-game affair. 

"He's making big-time plays at key moments and that's what defines a superstar in this league," said Hedman, "and Brayden has really turned into that."

"The big thing for me is what he does in the biggest moments of the game," agreed Cooper. "The Boston series two years ago, how he elevated his play to help get us through, and again in this Columbus series he gets two of the biggest goals in our franchise history, to be honest, in those overtime goals. It's up to the player in those situations to make themselves better and he's done that."

Point is up to five goals and five assists in eight games so far in the bubble. He's produced 27 points in 29 career Stanley Cup playoff games.  

A third-round pick in 2014, Point has defied expectations throughout his career. Cooper pointed out that the Calgary native, who stands 5-foot-10, 166 pounds, was one of the last players to make Team Canada at the 2015 World Juniors before serving as captain one year later. 

"He's kind of had that progression here in the NHL," Cooper said. "The one thing he needed to work on was his skating. I can remember him in his first development camp and that was probably the only thing holding him back. When you're on the smaller side you have to be really good at something and on top of his competitiveness and skill and all that, his skating has improved so much, it’s gone from a weakness to a strength so he can put defencemen on [their] heels, he's quick, he's shifty."

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After going winless in the round robin, the veteran Bruins lifted their game against the Carolina Hurricanes. Where did they show the most progression? 

"Probably our rush reads," noted Cassidy. "We got victimized by Tampa and I think Washington a couple of times. We were giving up the middle of the ice so we talked about how we wanted to make it harder for them by playing our D a little closer together and not getting as flexed and then forcing them to go through us to get to the net. I thought we did a good job of that against Carolina. A lot of their offence came from the point. [Joel] Edmundson scored, Dougie Hamilton, [Haydn] Fleury, so they were getting some of those looks, which they do well, but we blocked a lot of their opportunities as well. We didn't give up much through the middle. Them losing [Andrei] Svechnikov obviously hurt because he's one guy that does get into the paint in the slot, but that's the area we controlled. We, on the flip side, got to that area in front of their net and a lot of our goals were scored on a second effort in front of their net even on the power play."

Carolina forwards produced only three goals in five-on-five play in the five-game series. 

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As the series between the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals came to an end on Thursday night, the last two men at the end of the handshake line shared a moment. Barry Trotz and Braden Holtby shook hands and th​e coach and goalie briefly reconnected. 

​"We had a lot of success when he was here," Holtby said. "I have a ton of respect for him. He's an honest guy and you just wish him the best because he's one of the good guys in hockey."

Trotz guided the Capitals to the franchise's first Stanley Cup in 2018, but couldn't agree on a new contract​ with the team after that breakthrough season. The Islanders were quick to snap him up. Holtby, who is a pending unrestricted free agent, appears likely to become the next key member of that championship team to leave town. Thursday’s loss might have been his final game in Capitals red. 

"Certainly a chance it is, but who knows,” the 30-year-old Saskatchewan native said. "This one's going to sting for a little bit." 

Trotz stopped to share a moment with several of his old players in the handshake line including Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, John Carlson and, of course, Alex Ovechkin. 

​"I look on the other side and I see champions over there," Trotz said. "You look at Ovi, you look at Backy, Osh, Braden Holtby, John Carlson, all those guys, those guys are champions in my mind, always will be. You go through a series like that where you've had some success with a group of guys and it tears you a little bit, because there's so many good memories, but at the same time you work for someone else and you want to beat that group." 

Trotz got the win and has now led the upstart Islanders to the second round in two straight seasons. His successor, meanwhile, has now failed to get the favoured Capitals out of the first round in consecutive seasons and Todd Reirden was asked if he's confident he'll get a third chance. 

"That's something that's part of the job," he said of the speculation about his job security. "It's not something I go into every day thinking about ... I'm confident that I'm a young coach that continues to improve and continues to get better and have been able to find success in the regular season and haven't been able to find it in two completely different circumstances in the playoffs. I don't have all the answers right now and it's good to take some time away and look at it and dissect why it happened."

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Reirden did mention that after a largely healthy regular season, the Capitals dealt with some key injuries in the playoffs. Ilya Samsonov, the heir apparent to Holtby in the crease, didn't even make it to the bubble. Backstrom missed three games in the Isles series while Carlson missed the round-robin games and the Norris Trophy nominee was clearly not at his best. 

"I was playing," Carlson said when asked how close he was to 100 per cent. "At this time of year, no one feels great."