By Mark Pukalo
After three grueling series that included six overtime games, there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Four more wins and the Bolts can celebrate a second Stanley Cup title in their history, but they face another difficult obstacle in a Dallas Stars team that is finally realizing its potential.
The Lightning has reached this point by scoring clutch goals, limiting turnovers, playing solid defense at key times, getting big performances from their three healthy superstar skaters and fantastic goaltending to beat the Blue Jackets, Bruins and Islanders.
They will require more of the same to finish the job and may need another superstar to make an appearance and give a boost to their inconsistent power play.
Perhaps the most important issue for Tampa Bay as they embark on the journey in the finals Saturday is health. Brayden Point is playing at less than 100 percent, Nikita Kucherov is banged up and captain Steven Stamkos has yet to play in the postseason, but he has been skating. Heck, probably everyone in the lineup is playing hurt.
The Bolts have to fight through it as they did in the first three rounds and make plays, keep their structure defensively and allow Andrei Vasilevskiy to work his magic between the pipes.
Dallas, like the Lightning, loves to get their defensemen involved in the offense and that will be a key. In my opinion, Tampa Bay’s defenseman Victor Hedman is the frontrunner for the Conn Smythe Trophy with nine goals and a league-best plus-19, but if the Stars win you could make a case for 21-year-old D man Miro Heiskanen (22 points, 21 games) to take the trophy. One of the keys to the series will be how each defense deals with the aggressive rearguards.
Dallas, coached by former Tampa Bay assistant Rick Bowness, will need No. 2 goaltender Anton Khudobin (.920 save percentage playoffs) to continue his standout postseason. Vasilevskiy (.930 SP postseason) knocked out one fellow Russian netminder in Semyon Varlamov last series against the Islanders and now faces another countryman on a roll. If the Lightning get to Khudobin, will former Bolt Ben Bishop be healthy enough to spell him?
The Stars have plenty dangerous offensive performers in captain Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov, Denis Gurianov and playoff ace Joe Pavelski. Once again, it is important the Lightning get some secondary offense from guys like Blake Coleman, Yanni Gourde, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn and Anthony Cirelli.
The games between these two teams the last few years have been offensive shows, but that will likely change in the heat of the Stanley Cup finals. It will come down to limiting quality chances and that again falls on the Lightning defense corps.
The Bolts held the Islanders to two or fewer goals in five of six games, along with the final three contests against the offensively-gifted Bruins. Hedman and Ryan McDonagh can’t do it all. The other four or five defensemen must continue to step up.
Eric Cernak had his best series against the Islanders. Zach Bogosian has made very few mistakes. Kevin Shattenkirk whiffed on that shot in overtime versus the Isles to lose Game 5, but has been very good overall. Mikhail Sergachev drives you nuts at times, but he also makes plays. Luke Schenn has been surprisingly solid as No. 7, except for his struggles in Game 3 versus the Islanders.
The question that may have to be answered is what happens if Stamkos is ready to play? Go back to 12/6, sit Tyler Johnson, or something else? Jon Cooper has pressed the right buttons most of the playoffs so far. But his toughest job may be over the next week with the injuries he has in the locker room. Can he finally shut his critics up?
The Cup is now sitting right in front of the Lightning. It is time to reach out and grab it and wash away all the pain of the previous five years.
Four more solid efforts in their defensive zone, intelligent play in the neutral zone, and some timely goals can bring the Cup back to the beach before the end of the month.
No comments:
Post a Comment