Pains me to say it, but the Bolts down the middle of the ice are seriously banged up. Stars in 5. I don't see this being much of a competition tbh. The tenacity line is all the depth that the Bolts have left. Gourde, Coleman, Goodrow. With Stamkos, Point, and Cirelli all being injured this team has become one dimensional and the power play looks anemic. Hedman and Vasy will help keep those games close, but I feel like Dallas is going to bring more offense than both CBJ and NYI while playing the type of hockey that the Bolts struggle against. It's going to be like the Boston series in revers IMO. Tampa somehow managing to cobble together 1 scoring line with the likes of Kucherov and Palat and whoever they can find on the bench to click with those two. Wish it could be TJ and bring back some of that triplets magic, but um no.
Stars in a 5 game cakewalk really is how i see it. 0-1, 0-2, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4. NO OT games. I think the Bolts get shut out Game 1, too little too late come back attempt Game 2, Vasy steals Game 3, a barn burner in Game 4 with Hedman going nuts for a hatty but not enough to win, and another shut out to close the Finals in Game 5.
Would love to be wrong, but we've already started to see the scoring drying up for these Bolts down the stretch. The depth of this team is amazing but again, when you carve out the center of the ice 3 layers deep, the depth has no foundation and collapses. That's what I see watching these Bolts. I'd bet just about any team that made the second round would love another shot at TBL and would probably take it. Facing a Dallas team that has all the confidence and a bit of rest is certainly going to be the biggest challenge the Bolts have faced yet, but do they have enough in the tank to hit another level and overcome the offensive dry spell? My heart says yes of course, but from what I saw in the ECF, I have to say no. Not by a long shot.
