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Series Talk: [A2] Tampa Bay Lightning vs [A3] Florida Panthers (FLA Leads 2-0)

Who wins and in how many games?

  • Lightning in 4

    Votes: 7 1.4%

  • Lightning in 5

    Votes: 32 6.6%

  • Lightning in 6

    Votes: 144 29.8%

  • Lightning in 7

    Votes: 122 25.3%

  • Panthers in 4

    Votes: 5 1.0%

  • Panthers in 5

    Votes: 24 5.0%

  • Panthers in 6

    Votes: 67 13.9%

  • Panthers in 7

    Votes: 82 17.0%
  • Total voters
    483
SeanMoneyHands said:
Marchand is far from being 100%. Is he going to play?
Click to expand...

He scored our only goal last night soooo...

dumb-and-dumber-jim-carrey.gif
 
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atlanticobserver said:
Could really see it going either way. I'm a Bolts fan so hard to see it from an unbiased perspective.

The team this year inspires a lot more confidence than last. They won't rely on the PP to win games. Both teams very good with their respective "power kills" on the PK. Florida missing Ekblad for two games is a big loss. They could be without Puljujarvi for a game or two thanks to his hit on Chaffee last night, granted, idk how important he really is to Florida.

I think there are more question marks on the Florida side than the Tampa side, but I honestly think this is a coin toss. I could see either team getting hot and winning quick or dragging it to 6 or 7.

I'm really skeptical of the idea that Matthew Tkachuk won't be back and playing like a psychopath on his first shift of game 1. But Barkov has been banged up and the Panthers in general are probably a little tired similar to how we were by 2022.

I think Florida's backend was better last year with Montour and OEL, but they did add Brad Marchand. I think Tampa is better in basically all respects and Florida will have a harder time negating the TB top line with Guentzel than they did last year, even though Stamkos was good in that series.

Cirelli had a great series last year and had 2 goals taken off the board for goaltender interference in game 5 (the second of which was totally BS but not sure if it would have changed much).

For TB to win, they basically just need to keep doing what they're doing: Dominate at home, choke out the other team's offense in the third with shutdown play, Vasilevskiy to make the saves he needs to and to make a big one here or there, and the depth contributors to have their fingerprints on the series. They are a rougher team than you'd think and with guys like Hagel, Girgensons, Cernak, and perhaps Conor Geekie, they should be able to weather the physicality Florida brings.

For FLA to win, they need to reverse course on their last few weeks of play, score a lot more, and Bob will have to be as strong as he was last year. They need guys like Verhaeghe to break out quickly and make an impact. Last year their physicality alone was just about enough to take TB down but this year I think they will need more than that. Their stars are going to have to carry the load early in the series until they get Ekblad back.
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A lot that I agree with here, to be fair, including the question marks on Florida. Although I actually think our roster "on paper" is actually just as strong, if not stronger, than last year: we're slightly worse on our back end but our forward group should be insane. It's just we're been a combination of unavailable/banged up/snake-bitten - and just a general "want it less" attitude.

As others have mentioned here, the key for Tampa is to strike hard and fast, and make this a short and quick series. The longer you give us, the better/more in sync we get and (just as importantly), the more pissed off we get. And we definitely play better when we're pissed off. So maybe a toss up but with the definite edge to Tampa this year.

PS I'm kind of mystified why Puljujarvi seems to be even a talking point - I mean, he played a few games while we were resting guys, scored a goal, apparently hit some guy, and then buggered back to Checkers.
 
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AlwaysSunnyInTampa said:
Why is everyone being so nice? Stop

Tampa is real Florida
Tkachuk wasn't injured
Barkov isn't a traditional Finnish last name
Bennett is a poopy head

Fite me irl Flo Bros
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[clears throat]

Your jerseys are stupid and you look like a bunch of smurfs on ice.
We've got rats - what do you have: static?!
Kucherov is a sneaky dirty as f*** player and should have been suspended - none of OUR players would... Ummn. OK, scrap that.
You're dirty cheaters using LTIR to game the system. How dare you??!! We would never... Scrap that too.
Cats are definitely cuter than Bolts
Something about strip clubs?

OK, this is hard. I'm really bad at this. Your jerseys ARE stupid though.
 
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Tampa in 7. The battle of Florida will be the best matchup we'll see throughout the entire playoffs this year.

Even though I think the battle of Ontario will be more entertaining.
 
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Panthers Propaganda said:
Whatever HockeyVirus says, usually the opposite tends to happen. World's Worst Fortune Teller Ever TM.

Despite this, Ekblad is out for two games. That is massive I could easily see us being down 2-0 by then. Likewise, the rest of the roster is not healthy. I don't think we make it this year and say Tampa in 6. I've maintained we need a healthy rest over the summer.
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Also expect ekblad to be pretty bad off his cycle
 
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Vergil said:
Tampa in 7. The battle of Florida will be the best matchup we'll see throughout the entire playoffs this year.

Even though I think the battle of Ontario will be more entertaining.
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I don't think so.

I really doubt that we'll see the kind of seires these two teams played over the last years.

I just think that Panthers just don't have it this year. They're cooked and will be missing key pieces (Ekblad and Tkachuk) for the first games.

I would be shocked if this series go in 7. Tampa should win it in 5.
 
This series 100% relies on the health of Matty T.

Fully healthy Panthers are better than Tampa.

If Matty T can't go...all bets are off. VASY is playing really well.
 
IdleTraveller said:
A lot that I agree with here, to be fair, including the question marks on Florida. Although I actually think our roster "on paper" is actually just as strong, if not stronger, than last year: we're slightly worse on our back end but our forward group should be insane. It's just we're been a combination of unavailable/banged up/snake-bitten - and just a general "want it less" attitude.

As others have mentioned here, the key for Tampa is to strike hard and fast, and make this a short and quick series. The longer you give us, the better/more in sync we get and (just as importantly), the more pissed off we get. And we definitely play better when we're pissed off. So maybe a toss up but with the definite edge to Tampa this year.

PS I'm kind of mystified why Puljujarvi seems to be even a talking point - I mean, he played a few games while we were resting guys, scored a goal, apparently hit some guy, and then buggered back to Checkers.
Click to expand...
I wasn’t sure if Puljujarvi was actually likely to play or not. But your points are well taken otherwise
 
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