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With the National Hockey League at its All-Star Game break, it’s time to ask difficult questions.

How does a team that came within one goal of winning Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final, losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, shed its much-touted identity so quickly?

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How does a well-established veteran goaltender go from playing at an elite level in the final stages of the regular season and playoffs to a netminder whose goals-against average balloons and save percentage bottom out after signing a contract extension?

Surely, Guy Boucher is asking these questions. After all, it’s déjà-vu for him.

All of the above applied to the Tampa Bay Lightning of 2010-13 and the Ottawa Senators of 2016-18, both coached by Boucher.

Similarities are eerie. Lightning, you could say, has now struck twice.

In Boucher’s first season as Lightning coach, in 2011, Tampa was backstopped by the goaltending of 40-year-old Dwayne Roloson and pushed the Boston Bruins to the limit in the East final before losing 1-0 in Game 7. The Bruins then knocked off the Vancouver Canucks to win the Cup.