The Tampa Bay Lightning have a chance to move on to the Stanley Cup Final with a victory over the New York Rangers at Amalie Arena tonight. Thanks to a good defensive win in Game Five at Madison Square Garden, the Bolts are up 3-2 in the series and have a berth in the Final square in their sights.
While it’s true that Tampa Bay was absolutely dominant at Amalie all season long, it’s hard to draw much confidence from that record given what has transpired in the playoffs. The Lightning have been… okay on home ice. ‘Okay’ won’t get the job done tonight against a New York team that practically patented the miracle comeback in this year’s second round. The Bolts need to be good, really good.
I wish I had more to write about this morning, but coach Jon Cooper has been very coy about any lineup decisions he has made in advance of tonight’s game. In fact, he went as far as to say that lineup questions are “pointless… right now. He’s not giving up any information.
One thing we do know, though, is that Cedric Paquette is being described as questionable for tonight. Having him sit for a game wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, injured or not, simply because he’s been so ineffective for most of the playoffs. The speculation surrounding the team right now indicates that Vladislav Namestnikov, who has been equally bad, will slot in his place if he can’t go.
Today’s skate was optional, so it’s hard to gauge much more than that with regards to the forwards and defense. The situation in goal is a lot simpler. Ben Bishop, as expected, will get the start in net. He’ll be looking to build on his Game Five shutout victory.
The talk around the team this morning is that they are treating tonight’s game like a Game Seven. The Bolts do not want to take the plane back to New York. They had this same mentality in Game Six against Montreal, and responded with their best performance of the postseason. Here’s hoping it works again.
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.