by Brandt Corbin
For the time ever, Tampa and Boston will go head to head in the playoffs, and the stakes could not be any higher. The winner will advance to the Stanley Cup finals, Tampa looking for their second Cup of the decade, Boston is seeking its first Cup win since 1971. The series will feature two of the stingiest defensive teams this season, two veteran goaltenders, and two very different first lines, one loaded with skill and the other toughness with skill.
Tampa’s 50 goal scorer Steven Stamkos has another tough head to head matchup ahead of him going against Boston. He was practically a no show in the first round vs Pittsburgh with the only exception of game 4. He has a tougher road ahead of him. Zdeno Chara’s soul mission is to do whatever he needs to do to stop Stamkos. If Chara succeeds Tampa has to continue getting secondary scoring and more. Tampa will have Eric Brewer along with its shutdown line (Moore, Hall and Thompson) to shutdown Lucic, Horton and Krejci.
One of the main reasons why these two teams have advanced to the conference finals is the overall depth upgrade and timely scoring from the role players. In the first round Boston got more offense from their third line, then the first two lines combined. Tampa’s role players Steve Downie, Sean Bergenheim and Moore have played very well in both series, scoring huge goals when they needed it most. “Their role players outplayed our highest paid players,” said Washington Captials owner Ted Leonis about Tampa’s role players performance in round 2. The Bruins need a consistent effort from their second and third lines, if they are quite it could be a tough hill to climb.
Eventually the Bruins will try and push around the softer less aggressive Lightning. The big bad B’s better remain discipline or the Tampa power play will make them pay. Tampa’s penalty kill has been outstanding, near perfect in fact, giving up 1 power play goal in 48 penalties taken. The Bruins went the entire first round without one power play goal. In a tightly contested defensive series, specialty teams will prove to be the difference.
The two star goalies in this series have a combined age of 78 years old. Bruins Tim Thomas was average in the first round, but was a played above average against the Flyers. Tampa’s Dwayne Rolloson has played very good thus for in the two rounds, but has given up his fair share of weak goals. The better of the two will be the winner, simply because both teams are very solid defensively. These two goalies know better than anyone else, this is their first and maybe only chance to raise Lord Stanley, you cannot find two other goalies as focused and as intense as these two are.
Tampa is not 100% healthy going into the series, both veterans Pavel Kubina and Simon Gagne are both out with suspected concussions, Gagne is questionable for game 1 while Kubina is doubtful. Rookie Dana Tyrell is also out with a knee injury and is not expected to start the series. Boston on the other hand will be without Patrice Bergeron with a concussion, he is out at least until game 3, Boston likely will be very careful with him, because of his history with head injuries.
When its all said and done, Tampa’s overall top end depth should make the difference. Even if Chara manages to shutdown Stamkos he then has to deal with speedy Martin St.Louis, then on top of that you’ve got Vinny Lecavalier, the most dangerous second line center in the league. Tampa’s 1-1-3 defensive trap will frustrate the Bruins, I’m taking the Lightning in 6 games.
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