How good it feels to say these words: The Tampa Bay Lightning have eliminated the Boston Bruins from the Stanley Cup Playoffs and are advancing to the Eastern Conference Final.
This marks the fourth time in the past six seasons -- and fifth in the past ten -- that the Lightning have made it this deep into the most arduous post-season in all of sports.
And for the second time in the past three seasons, they have made it this far by eliminating Boston 4-1 in the second round.
I honestly don't know what feels better, the fact that they advanced or the fact that they did so at the expense of those dastardly Bruins from Beantown. Probably the latter, since the Bruins are the defending conference champs, and had the NHL's best record this corona-abbreviated regular season, and, let's face it, everybody not from New England enjoys watching any championship-aspiring Boston franchise get denied.
Anyhoo, now it's time for a few looks both back and forward.
* * * * *
Tampa Bay dropped Game One by a single goal, then ran the table the next four games to eliminate the Bruins while outscoring them 19-10 for the series. Sounds like a pretty good drubbing, doesn't it?
In some ways, it actually was. The Lightning surrendered just one five-on-five goal across the final three contests, and they consistently looked like the better and deeper team through most of the series. They turned Boston's second through fourth lines pretty much into non-factors, forcing the Bruins to rely too heavily on their top line of Bergeron-Pastrnak-Marchand.
But this is the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so of course it wasn't as easy as it might look on paper. Two of the games went to overtime before the Bolts pulled them out, including a pivotal Game Two -- had the result gone the other way that night, the Bolts would have been down 2-0 in the series entering Game Three rather than tied 1-1. And that, moi druz'ya, is a big deal.
* * * * *
Brayden Point was the most visible offensive hero in the first round, scoring overtime goals against Columbus in Games One and Five to secure Tampa Bay's trip to the second round. Once in the second round, however, Ondrej Palat took over that role by tallying five goals against the Bruins; among those five were the OT winner in Game Two and a splendid redirect to open the scoring in Game Five.
Still, if I had to pick the top Conn Smythe candidate for this team it would be defenseman extraordinaire Victor Hedman. The 29-year-old from Ornskoldsvik, Sweden has eaten monster minutes and performed near-perfectly in all three zones, on both sides of the puck, in both series. It's only fitting that it was he who scored the series-winning goal against the Bruins, on a laser 14:10 into the second overtime Monday night.
Nikita Kucherov is right up there too, with 16 points (4,12) in the 13 games Tampa Bay has played in the bubble since the NHL returned from hiatus. He is doing it while playing sound defense as well.
Meanwhile, trade deadline acquisition Blake Coleman, born and raised in that hockey hotbed of Plano, Texas, scored a pair of goals in the pivotal Game Two victory nine days ago.
And the 30-year-old recent castoff from Buffalo, Zach Bogosian, continued to play like a man possessed in the second round after surprising everyone with his stellar performance in the opening round. His late-season signing by GM Julien BriesBois could prove to be the best under-the-radar move ever made by this franchise.
And inevitably in this sport, there is the all-important man between the pipes. Andrei Vasilevskiy was dialed in big-time against the Bruins, turning in a series-long .936 save percentage overall and .960 at even-strength. Before the series was over he had become the all-time franchise leader in playoff wins -- which is saying something when you consider that three netminders who spent major portions of their careers playing for the Lightning (Daren Puppa, Nikolai Khabibulin, and Ben Bishop) were named to the Top 100 NHL Goalies of All-Time list by The Hockey News two years ago.
You gotta love all of the above.
* * * * *
There are reasons to believe this Lightning club has what it takes to win it all this spring summer/fall. One of those reasons is their depth both up front and on the blue line.
Bogosian wasn't even on the roster until near the end of the season, and he was thought to be depleted and over the hill, yet he is playing alongside the mighty Hedman and not even missing a beat. He even made the offensive highlight reels with his sprint and assist on Coleman's opening goal in Game Two.
Ryan McDonagh went down for three games, so Braydon Coburn and Luke Schenn stepped right up and got things done when Coach Cooper responded by switching to an 11-7 lineup.
After becoming the talk of the league against Columbus, the Lightning's third line of Coleman, Yanni Gourde, and Barclay Goodrow kept it up against Boston by bringing energy, spunk, defensive acumen, and timely scoring.
It says something that the Bolts have made it so deep into the playoffs despite Steven Stamkos being sidelined the whole time, and despite McDonagh missing three games versus Boston, and despite having to play most of the final game against Boston without Kucherov (they were actually down to 10 forwards after Kuch took a high stick to the head).
It certainly helps when you have two-way pivot Anthony Cirelli, who is able to play productive hockey no matter who you put him up against... and smart, tough, redirect maestro Alex Killorn, who always delivers in the post-season... and big man Pat Maroon, bringing his Cup experience to the top of the crease on the fourth line... and feisty Cedric Pacquette, ever eager to get under an opponent's skin... and Kucherov, playing hard-nosed and belying the rap that he is only a "skills guy"... and Mikhail Sergachev, playing spot-on playoff hockey and growing by leaps and bounds... and Kevin Shattenkirk, distributing pucks and getting shots on net from the point like nobody's business.
* * * * *
But there are also reasons to doubt that the Lightning has what it takes to win it all.
Right now, Kucherov's injury status is unknown. He has skated since that high stick to the head, but his availability to play is up in the air. If the Bolts have to play without him and Stamkos it could be very damaging to their Cup chances.
Speaking of which, they need Stammer back. He is one of the premier players on Planet Earth, and while they have advanced without him thus far in this tournament, his production and leadership are simply too much to be without over the long haul.
Oh, and another reason they need Stammer is that they continue to be deficient at face-offs. Yes, Point is good at the dot and Goodrow played really well there against the Bruins, winning 63.3 percent of the time overall and 64.3 percent while short-handed. But Goodrow is below 50 percent for the playoffs as a whole, as is every other Bolt not named Point or Coleman. And Coleman very rarely takes face-offs, so the fact that his percentage is above water almost shouldn't count.
Sometimes it is easy to forget about face-offs, but they are crucial in key situations and late in games. If a team is bad at them, it will usually catch up to them at the worst of times. The Lightning need The Captain back for face-offs just as much as they would love to have him back for his one-timer.
Also, it has been years since a team won the Stanley Cup without getting several clutch performances by their back-up goalie during the playoff run. So far these playoffs, the Lightning have not let Curtis McElhinney even sniff the ice. Yes, they haven't needed to because Vasy has not been injured, but other teams have given their back-ups important reps, including on back-to-backs.
Are the Lightning keeping McElhinney on the pine because they don't need him on the ice, or are they keeping him there because they don't think he has what it takes? I don't know, and I hope I don't have to find out the hard way.
* * * * *
On that note, I guess I have written long enough. Bring on the ECF, regardless of whether the opponent is the Flyers or Islanders!
I will soon write more about these playoffs in general as opposed to writing just about my team, but be that as it may: Go Bolts!
No comments:
Post a Comment