Tonight the Tampa Bay Lightning start play in the eighth conference final in franchise history. It’s the second time they’ll take on the Rangers in this round (and the fourth time it’s been a team from New York). It’s been a bit of a mixed bag of results for them as they’ve gone 4-3 over all and 2-1 on the road. They’ve alternated wins and losses in the last six Game Ones.
There have been close games (two 2-1 losses) and blowouts. Ondrej Palat has scored in four of the five he’s appeared in and Andrei Vasilevskiy was actually pulled from one.