The Tampa Bay Lightning charge into the Amalie Arena tonight to face off with the New Jersey Devils in the first game of the Lightning’s final home stand of the 2014-15 season.
The moment that hockey fans both live for and dread every single season has finally arrived. The 2014-15 season is coming to an end, and for some teams that means more tee time than ice time. Thankfully, that is not the case for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
As most of you know by now, the Tampa Bay Lightning has already secured their place in the post season. In fact, they have even elevated things to the point of gaining home ice advantage in the first round. At this point, there are just two more matters of business the Lightning need to handle before the post season can start.
That journey begins tonight at the Amalie Arena as the Tampa Bay Lightning takes on the New Jersey Devils, kicking off the final home stand of the 2014-15 season in their penultimate game of the season. After tonight’s encounter, they will have one final game in which the Lightning will host the Boston Bruins in the final game of the season.
Unfortunately for the New Jersey Devils, there is absolutely no mathematical way that they will be able to earn themselves a spot in the post season. This means that when the final buzzer sounds on the regular season that some of them will be heading to the golf course.
The thing is, this doesn’t make the Devils any less of a formidable team. In fact, after dropping what we can only suspect was two embarrassing losses in a row at the hands of the New York Rangers, the Devils will have something to prove to their fans; that even though they have no chance at the Stanley Cup this season, they still have plenty of fight in them.
This is going to make the Devils an aggressive team hungry for a win. If the Tampa Bay Lightning wants to come out on top in this encounter there are a couple of keys that they are going to have to touch on. The Lightning are going to have to remain focused and play a consistent 60 minutes of hockey.
Also, they are going to have to find a way to stay out of the penalty box, and maybe most importantly of all, is to strike first and strike hard. When the Tampa Bay Lightning strikes first, they have gone 34-7-4 this season. We don’t know about you, but those look like pretty good odds for us.
Win or lose, when tonight’s game is over the Tampa Bay Lightning will be staring down one of the most difficult and most important tasks of the season; taking on the Boston Bruins in the final game of the regular season. This is important for so many reasons.
The Bruins have seemingly had the Lightning’s number all season long. The Lightning has proved that the Bruins are not unbeatable, and if they want to bring home the final two points of the regular season, they are going to have to make history repeat itself and find a way to bring down the “big, bad” Bruins.
Much like the Devils, the Bruins are a hungry team looking for a win; albeit for different reasons. The Bruins are in a position much like the Tampa Bay Lightning as they are looking to increase their stature in the post season. We have all seen what a hungry Bruin looks like, we just need to focus all of our energies and give them a little Bolt jolt.
It is most definitely going to be an uphill battle for the Tampa Bay Lightning as they head into the final two games of the season. The good news is that we are well aware that our boys in blue have strong enough legs to carry the franchise through any obstacle in their way.
The only thing left to question now is whether or not you are ready to Be The Thunder as our Tampa Bay Lightning charge into the post season? We know we are!
The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Amalie Arena. Here’s all the information you’ll need to make sure you don’t miss a moment of the action as the Tampa Bay Lightning take on the New Jersey Devils tonight.
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