With the season the Tampa Bay Lightning have had, this season-long outcome shouldn’t be the case. However, with a 3-1 win Wednesday night, they have won their season series over the Boston Bruins.
There’s something to be said about this feat. Last season was the opposite scenario: they lost three out of four. Despite the inconsistencies this season, this team refuses to give in to them. This series win over the Bruins reflects how they have continued to beat the odds.
A Snapshot of the Win
The Lightning scored first on a goal by Mitchell Chaffee. The rookie forward scored his fourth goal of the season and also got onto the scoresheet for the first time in March.
Boston tied it on a goal by Danton Heinen, but they got back the lead on a goal by Brayden Point and never rescinded it.
Nikita Kucherov sealed it with an empty net goal, and the Lightning picked up the win. They won their 40th game of the season and improved to 87 points, inching closer to securing a playoff spot with 10 games left.
Andrei Vasilevskiy‘s strong performance earned him the first star of the night. He saved 23 of 24 for a save percentage of .958. Chaffee received the second star and Point received the third star for their scoring efforts.
An Unlikely Series Win Reflects the Entire Season
The reality is that the Lightning should not have been in a position to win the season series in the first place. The first game against the Bruins came on Nov. 20 when they struggled greatly early on. The storylines were blown leads, overtime losses, a lack of depth – especially on defense – and no starting goalie. Boston was off to a 13-1-2 start, looking just like the team that had a historic regular season the year before. It looked bleak.
Instead of being shut down, the Lightning battled for 61 minutes and 19 seconds to win 5-4 in overtime.
This win gave the Lightning and their fans hope that something good could still come out of this season. They also won at home, which would become a saving grace of theirs. How much of a saving grace? Well, they’re 22-9-3 at Amalie Arena this season. Home sweet home indeed.
However, the Lightning struggled to find their footing as the season dragged on. It didn’t matter that they had Vasilevskiy back, they were a sluggish 19-16-5 heading into Boston and the result was a 7-3 loss on Jan. 6. What started as another battle slowly slipped away in the final period of play. This is where I point out I left out a key storyline of their struggles early on: Their performance away from home. Following the 7-3 loss, the Lightning were 8-12-2 away from home. Struggles on the road translated into a tough loss at TD Garden.
Had the Lightning continued to play as poorly as they did in the first half of the season – and the loss was the 41st game of the season, so literally halfway – yeah, maybe the Lightning end up dropping the series like the season before. Instead, they woke up. The Lightning won five in a row for the first time all season immediately after this game.
When the Bruins, came back to Tampa on Feb. 13, the Lightning hung on to win 3-2 in the shootout. Whether or not the win is part of the run of success immediately after is up for debate. They had a weak finish to February (5-6-1 record that month). It could be they just match up well against Boston. Perhaps a bit of that January success carried over. For what it’s worth, an up-and-down game that resulted in a win fit the season to that point pretty well. They probably shouldn’t have won this road game, yet they beat the odds.
March has been the exact opposite, they’re 8-1-1. That lone loss in regulation came before the trade deadline on March 8. With wins over the New York Rangers and Florida Panthers during that stretch, two teams that had their number previously, it shouldn’t be that surprising the Lightning had a strong, decisive 3-1 victory in the final regular-season matchup against the Bruins.
This Lightning team has no business being in this position with what’s plagued them for more than half the season. They shouldn’t have won three out of four against the Bruins, but here they are.
An Exciting Potential Playoff Matchup
If the playoffs started today, the Lightning and Bruins would face off in the first round. It would be fitting. One of the thick layers of this rivalry is that these two teams are very familiar with each other come playoff time.
They’ve faced each other three times with the Lightning winning two. The series winner went on to win the Stanley Cup twice (Bruins 2011 and Lightning 2020). Much is at stake when these two face off both historically and in the moment. These two teams look to bounce back from tough playoff exits last season. The Bruins are trying to show their recent dominance is no fluke and the Lightning want to show their dominance during the 2020s decade isn’t over yet. A path to the Cup likely results in this matchup regardless of the round. It’ll be a thriller, and whoever comes out of it is likely in for a serious playoff run.
Prefacing this upcoming comment, it should always be taken into account that the playoffs are a different animal. Seeing a team in a best-of-seven series over two weeks is not the same as seeing a team four times over five to six months. Ups and downs stop being a factor, and it’s all about how well you’re playing in the moment and how well you match up with the other guy.
That being said, these wins have been a difference maker in determining if the Lightning will be in the playoffs this season. For that reason, they may be an opponent the Bruins hope to avoid. The Lightning match up well with this team and if they come to play in the playoffs like they are now, it could spell trouble for Boston. However, if they cool off and look how they did early in the season, or even just a few weeks ago, the Bruins will be all over them.
Regardless, the Lightning have proved one thing. No matter how much the salary cap has gutted their roster, no matter the injuries or deficiencies, they aren’t through being the thorn in everyone’s side.
More must-reads: