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Tampa Bay Lightning Look To Solve Their Boston Bruins Problem

By Tasha St. Pierre |

The Tampa Bay Lightning prepare to face down the Boston Bruins for the third time this season and finally solve what has been their most complicated problem this season.

The Tampa Bay Lightning quickly rose to the top of the Atlantic Division, and for a while there the entire Eastern Conference, this season. Unfortunately, despite winning game after game this season there has been one problem the Lightning just haven’t been able to solve…the Boston Bruins.

This is not to say that the Tampa Bay Lightning has gotten their “behinds handed to them” in each of these encounters. In fact, it has been exactly the opposite.

Each of the encounters the Lightning has lost to the Bruins this season has been by just one goal, one of which came in the shootout.

The Lightning has taken the Bruins to the limit, but for one reason or another has simply not been able to get the job done; however, as the Bruins roll into the Amalie Arena tomorrow night, the Lightning may very well be looking at one of their best opportunities this season to fix their “big, bad” Bruin problem.

You see, as we speak the “big, bad” Bruins are down in Sunrise going toe to toe with the Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center. On top of that, Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien elected to go with Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask tonight.

This means that not only will the Bruins be suffering from the pains of exhaustion from playing two challenging nights in a row, but their number one goaltender will not be fresh when they come calling at the Amalie Arena. This presents a unique opportunity for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

As most of you know by now, the Tampa Bay Lightning has left wing Ondrej Palat back in their arsenal once again, which means that the team’s most cohesive unit is back at full strength once again.

If there is anything that can be determined by the contests we have already seen this season is that the Tampa Bay Lightning are going to need all hands on deck if they hope to solve the puzzle that is the Boston Bruins.

The simple fact of the matter is that the Tampa Bay Lightning are going to have to be willing to play the Bruins’ kind of game. The Bruins are a hard-hitting team that is not afraid to get gritty when the situation calls for it. The Lightning are going to have to hit them with everything they have; they need to come out strong, be aggressive, and not let the pressure off for a whole sixty minutes of hockey.

One of the players that the Lightning is going to need to keep their eyes on is Patrice Bergeron. Bergeron currently leads the Bruins in points so far this season, having scored 20 goals and 30 goals for a total of 50 points.

Bergeron’s 20th goal came in the early moments of the second period against the Florida Panthers tonight.

We were kind of hoping that we would have newly acquired defenseman Braydon Coburn and our favorite scrappy little center Cedric Paquette back in the lineup before we had to face off with the Bruins, but the reality of the situation is that our wish may be nothing more than a pipe dream at this point.

On the bright side, with the Triplet Line functioning at full speed again, the Bruins will have their hands full with more than one scoring savant. As usual, the B’s will have to be on the lookout for Lightning center Tyler Johnson. Johnson has scored 25 goals and 40 assists for a total of 65 points to accompany a plus-31 rating.

It seems as if the Tampa Bay Lightning has a new leader in terms of points. Captain Steven Stamkos scored his 40th goal of the season on Friday night against the Detroit Red Wings. Add that to his 26 assists so far and that gives him a total of 66 points.

Stamkos’ 40th goal elevated the Lightning captain into second place in the National Hockey League in goals scored, just behind Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin who has 47.

There is no telling what the Tampa Bay Lightning will be in store for tomorrow night, but as the final second tick off the clock and the Bruins have officially suffered the agony of defeat against the Florida Panthers in a shootout we assure you that the Bruins will be that much more focused tomorrow night in Tampa.

We don’t know about you, but we don’t want to miss a moment of the action between the Lightning and the Bruins. We are sure to be in for an exciting game between two top tier teams with playoff implications for both teams. The question is, are you ready to Be The Thunder?

Don’t forget! The puck drops at an early 5:00 p.m. EST start time.

Next: Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Boston Bruins: Behind Enemy Lines

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