I have no idea how we can consider the playoffs and Anders Lindback as a sign that we can compete with them. It might not be as easy, but it is easy to see that it's a bad matchup. We hate teams that are fast and play hockey. We prefer when, like the Bruins, or like the SEns tried, to be physical and forget to play hockey. We have seen that numerous times during the season too.
First of all, when Price went down against the NYR we didn't fold like a cheap tent like TB did. We took the best team in the East to 6 games. Yeah Tokarski played pretty good, but he posted a .916 SV% so it wasn't like he was a world beater by any means. We dominated TB in shots and possession the whole series, they didn't get helped by their goaltending but it certainly wasn't the sole reason they lost by any means.
Secondly, not sure where this narrative of "getting beat by fast teams" really came from. Why because we lost to the NYR? They are just a better team in just about every facet than us. We often get beat because teams forecheck our defensemen and trap us in our defensive zone, is this conducive to a fast team? Not necessarily.
Ottawa is a fast team and score a lot of their goals off the rush, it wasn't much of a problem against them. We actually do quite well in minimizing odd-man rushes against for the most part.
I thought one of the biggest reasons TB did so poorly against us last playoffs was because they had no forecheck game whatsoever. Cooper didn't recognize this as a weakness and he didn't ever try to exploit at all.
We'll see how they do this time but I am far from gloomy about this matchup. Regular season means absolutely squat-diddily-****-all in the playoffs.
