The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins will play their fifth game tonight in the second round of the Stanley Cup Play-offs. The Bolts can clinch the series with a win. Will Tampa Bay secure a place in the Eastern Conference Finals, or will Boston keep their dream of winning the Stanley Cup alive?
Tampa Bay Lightning: Three wins in a row
The Tampa Bay Lightning dominated last year's regular season, but were then swept in the first round of the playoffs at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Bolts learned their lesson, as they did not play this season to break all records, but kept the bigger goal, winning the Stanley Cup, in mind. They ended the regular season eight points behind Boston and knew that they had to deliver when the playoffs would start after the coronapandemic.
Tampa Bay took revenge for that thumping by Columbus last year, a few weeks ago they won their first-round series of this year's playoffs against them in five games. In the second round, an exciting battle was expected against the Boston Bruins, but the Lightning are already 3-1 ahead after four games. The Bolts crushed Boston 7-1 last Wednesday and won 3-1 last weekend. A big difference with their first round is that Tampa Bay's power play is now clicking.
Boston Bruins: with their backs against the wall
While the Tampa Bay Lightning were the most dominant team in the regular season last year, this year the Boston Bruins were the best team during the regular season . The restart of the season, and the start of the playoffs, took place at the beginning of August. During the Round Robin games, Boston did not seem to be a shadow of the team that played so strongly five months ago. In the end, the Bruins fell to fourth seed in the Eastern Conference.
At the end of the first round goalie Tuukka Rask decided to leave the bubble because he missed his family. It was a big loss for coach Bruce Cassidy.Backup goalie Jaroslav Halak kept strong in the first game against Tampa Bay, but back-to-back games in games 2 and 3 proved too much to ask of him in the end. After the 7-1 defeat, Halak also underperformed with the rest of the Boston squad in Game 4, putting the Bruins with their back against the wall.
Tampa Bay Lightning incl. Overtime
Rask decided to leave the bubble a fortnight ago and the rest of the team knows that if they are defeated tonight, they can be reunited with their loved ones after a month. Tampa Bay simply makes a better impression in this series. Their defense looks great and they finally are effective on their powerplay again. Boston, if we look at their recent meetings, often has a hard time playing the Bolts and I see no change in that tonight.
