TAMPA, Fla. – Brad Lauer is working again, with an employer that bears a resemblance to his last one.

It rains a whole lot more on the Florida coast than that one in California but it’s a warm-weather climate and Lauer is thrilled at where he has landed. The former Ducks assistant coach is on the staff of the Tampa Bay Lightning, another team with serious Stanley Cup aspirations.

The Lightning hasn’t buckled under them like the Ducks but they’ve had their own scuffles since getting to the Cup Final and losing to champion Chicago in six games. But they looked further ahead Saturday, applying a 5-0 pasting to the Ducks on Saturday night.

A surprising lack of scoring – something the Ducks know all too well – and some recent injuries to key players like Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson have Lauer noting how his teams past and present are trying to generate some real traction as they deal with huge expectations.

“We both have to play better,” said the 49-year-old Lauer, cut loose by Ducks general manager Bob Murray in June. “Same thing with us. We were winning games at the start but maybe we weren’t playing as well as we wanted to play.

“It kind of caught up with us and then the injury bug stepped up to us and kind of put us in a little bit of a rut right now.”

There is certainly a part of Lauer that feels he should be with the Ducks now but he’s found a comfortable spot with Lightning coach Jon Cooper, whom he’s known since they met at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame prep school back in Wilcox, Saskatchewan.

Murray got to his review of the Ducks after the Blackhawks eliminated his team in the Western Conference finals. Changes had to be made, even on the coaching staff. Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau kept his job but Lauer was sent packing.

An underachieving power play didn’t help his case. Lauer, however, holds no ill will, especially after Cooper added him to a staff that has Rick Bowness and Steve Thomas, whose scoring binge in the Mighty Ducks’ 2003 playoff run secured his place in franchise history.

“I was disappointed,” Lauer said of his firing. “I thought we had a good year. I thought we had a great playoff run. It is what it is. But I understand the business. The business is the business and I learned from it. I grew from it.

“I think I’m a better coach today than I was yesterday. I try to get better every day. You can be upset but I’m not going down about it in a way where it’s going to bother me or I hold grudges or whatever. I move on.

“They also gave me an opportunity to coach (in the NHL). I had a good four years. I enjoyed it and learned a ton.”

Lauer isn’t going to hold grudges. He figured that the Ducks had to go far last spring for the staff to remain intact. He’ll also be grateful for them being the team that brought him up out of the American Hockey League in 2011, where he had been an assistant with Syracuse.

Boudreau, who didn’t want to comment at the time of the firing, spoke warmly of Lauer before they stood on benches across from each other Saturday. He said Lauer is a communicator who has played the game and understands the different roles on a team.

“I was really happy,” Boudreau said. “You hate to lose anybody at any point in time, whether it’s yourself or anybody on your staff. To see good people. …you’d like to see them get right back in the door.

“He wouldn’t have gotten that opportunity if he wasn’t a real good person and a real good coach. He’s here for that reason.”

It was in the AHL where Lauer and Cooper reconnected and coached against each other after a friendship emerged on Long Island following their Saskatchewan school days. Lauer was a winger on the New York Islanders and Cooper was a student as nearby Hofstra University.

“He used to be my ticket in when I went to all of the Islander games,” Cooper said. “So I was really popular with all the college students because I had pretty good access to tickets. And then just the way he went with his career and I went with my career. But we always kept in touch over the years.”

An opening surfaced when George Gwozdecky resigned in June. Cooper also liked the fact that Lauer has “been in the trenches before” and worked well with coaching young players.

“We were looking for the right fit,” Cooper said. “Not just to fill a spot. He’s had experience running a power play in the NHL. He played in the NHL. And when we were kind of doing our homework looking for somebody, Brad’s name kept coming up over and over.

“The more homework he did, the better he looked. And the one thing is I know him personally. I can vouch for his character. He’s been a great addition to our staff.

“Plus, he’s funny as hell.”

Lauer doesn’t tune out the Ducks. He’s a big believer in teams needing to face adversity at some point in a season, particularly earlier than later. How one reacts to it speaks volumes. The Lightning, he believes, is learning from theirs and that “we know we can be better.”

And while the Ducks are stumbling about at 7-10-4, Lauer still believe they’ll be heard from in the Western Conference.

“I know the guys in that other locker room,” Lauer said. “Same thing with them. The last three seasons, we never really had a losing streak in Anaheim and they have one now. And there’s some adversity there.

“I think I know how the guys are going to handle it and they’re starting to come out of it. It’s a new area for them and I think that adversity is going to make them stronger and better down the road.”