The Tampa Bay Lightning may have clinched their spot in the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but there is still plenty of work to be done as they head to the Air Canada Centre to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are coming off a multiple record setting game at the Bell Centre last night as they completed the season sweep against the Montreal Canadiens. The Bolts also managed to clinch the spot the have been vigorously chasing in the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Unfortunately, the Tampa Bay Lightning doesn’€™t have very much time to sit back and revel in last night’€™s spectacular win. In fact, they don’€™t really have any time at all. Tonight, the Lightning will charge into the Air Canada Centre to go head-to-head with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the final time this season.
Let’€™s start out by addressing the rather large elephant in the room. The Tampa Bay Lightning are coming into tonight’€™s encounter on the second half of a back-to-back series. Obviously, this means that exhaustion may be setting in for the Bolts; especially with all of the line shake ups there have been lately.
If the Tampa Bay Lightning want to come home with a win tonight in Toronto and finish out this season series on a high note, the Lightning are going to have to play exactly like they did last night. They are going to have to hit the ice with intensity and keep the pressure on for an entire 60 minutes.
The Canadiens do not have a game on the schedule tonight which means that if the Tampa Bay Lightning can pull out a win in tonight’€™s encounter in Toronto, then they will leap frog right over the Canadiens and occupy first place in the Atlantic Division all by themselves.
Unfortunately, with all the injuries right now the team is going to be leaning rather hard on their younger players. The bright side here is that Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman has done a spectacular job building the Lightning a solid core of young players.
The depth this team has is simply amazing. This is going to pay off big for the Lightning as the post season quickly approaches. While some of our younger players won’€™t make it to the post season as some of our regular players should hopefully be returning from their various injuries, but they will have been instrumental in getting us there.
Considering that Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop got the start last night in Montreal, there is a good chance that we will see Andrei Vasilevskiy in net tonight for the Bolts. In the 15 games Vasilevskiy has played this season thus far, the young Russian netminder has gone 7-4-1 with a Goals Allowed Average of 2.30 and a Save Percentage of .920.
Despite the inordinate amount of adversity that the Lightning seem to be facing right now, there is nothing in this world that can convince us that the Tampa Bay Lightning doesn’€™t have the pieces they need to get the job done tonight in Toronto.
With the exception of one game this season, which took place all the way back in November, the Tampa Bay Lightning has had the number of the Toronto Maple Leafs and if captain Steven Stamkos and the rest of the team have anything to say about it, that won’€™t be changing tonight.
Who do you think is going to be the standout in tonight’s matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs? Do you think the Lightning have what it takes to pull this out in regulation and bring home the two points and hop on over the Montreal Canadiens in the standings? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. Here is all the information you’ll need to make sure you don’€™t miss a single moment of the action tonight at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
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