Out of all of the potential Stanley Cup Final matchups that existed at the start of the postseason, the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning might have been the most intriguing one.
You have a Chicago team that is looking to win its third Stanley Cup in six years and become the closest thing to a dynasty that you will find in the salary cap NHL, going up against an up-and-coming Tampa Bay team that is starting to establish itself as one of the NHL's elite teams. Get used to these guys playing deep into the playoffs because given their skill, youth and sharp front office they are probably not going away.
And if that's not enough they are also two of the most skilled, talented and exciting teams in the league, playing the type of up-tempo hockey that we have not always seen enough of this postseason.
The Eye On Hockey staff continues to get you ready for the 2015 Stanley Cup Final by giving you five things to know about each team. Here, we look at the Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
More Stanley Cup Final: Expert picks | Building the Blackhawks | Building the Lightning
1. The Lightning are not just an offensive team. They can also defend.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are as good as any other team in the NHL when it comes to scoring and generating offense, and when you think of their style of play you probably think of Steven Stamkos scoring a ton of goals or the Triplets line of Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat making magic happen on the ice. And all of that is true. They led the NHL in goals during the regular season (3.16 goals per game) and even though they are not quite matching that output in the playoffs, they are still putting up some strong numbers and are always capable of scoring goals in bunches.
But the thing that sometimes seems to get overlooked about this team is the fact they can also defend.
During the regular season the Lightning were one of the best teams in the NHL when it came to limiting their opponents shots, allowing only 27.9 shots on goal per game, the fifth best mark in the league. When you drill it down to even-strength shot attempts allowed, the Lightning were the third best team in the league allowing only 49.6 per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey. They were only 12th when it came to preventing goals, but part of that can be pointed to the struggles of former backup goalie Evgeni Nabokov earlier in the season when he allowed 29 goals in only nine starts. If they had received the same league average goaltending they did from Ben Bishop and Andrei Vasilevskiy in every other game in those Nabokov starts their goals against numbers would have gone from 12th in the league, all the way up to sixth.
Part of their success defensively is connected to their offense as they always seem to have a way of playing with the puck on their sticks and limit the amount of time they have to spend defending in their own zone. But when they do have to defend they have a pretty impressive collection of defenders led by Victor Hedman, a player that might have a Norris Trophy or two in his future, and Anton Stralman, one of the better defensive defenseman in the league.
Earlier this postseason Lightning coach Jon Cooper said this about Stralman and his impact on the game: "He may not win the Norris Trophy, but his partner will. That’s how good he can make you look."
2. Ben Bishop can also lend a helping hand offensively
Ben Bishop has been a great addition to the Lightning lineup over the past couple of years and has given the team quality goaltending for a cheap price against the salary cap, something that can be one of the most valuable commodities in hockey. The less you spend on goaltending, the more you have to spend on other areas. This postseason he is playing some of his best hockey and enters the Stanely Cup Final with a .920 save percentage and two Game 7 shutouts.
But here is my favorite Ben Bishop stat: Since the start of last season he has recorded nine assists for the Lightning (regular season and playoffs). As a goalie. Only one other goalie in the NHL has more than five assists during that same time period (Dallas Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen has eight). Bishop already has three this postseason, making him one of just two goalies since 1997 to have more than two assists in a single playoff run. Martin Brodeur was the other, finishing with four during the 2011-12 postseason during the New Jersey Devils' run to the Stanley Cup Final.
Just for comparisons sake, Cory Conacher, the player that Bishop was traded for during the 2011-12 season, only had three points this season for the New York Islanders.
3. The Lightning don't have a ton of Stanley Cup Final experience
Playing in their third Stanley Cup Final in six years the Chicago Blackhawks are no strangers to hockey's biggest stage as several players on the team already have a pair of Stanley Cup rings.
The Lightning, on the other hand, don't have quite as much Stanley Cup experience.
The only players on the Tampa Bay roster that have appeared in a Stanley Cup Final: Valtteri Filppula (with Detroit), Anton Stralman (New York), Brian Boyle (New York), Matt Carle (Philadelphia), Braydon Coburn (Philadelphia) and Brenden Morrow (Dallas). By comparison, the Blackhawks still have 13 players that were on their 2013 Stanley Cup winning team and have seven players that have won two Stanley Cups.
4. The Lightning have been a very top-heavy team in the playoffs
When it comes to the Tampa Bay offense pretty much all of it is coming from the same five players: Steven Stamkos, Alex Killorn, Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov.
Those five players have combined to score 42 of the Lightning's 55 goals this postseason. That is more than 75 percent of the team's goals coming from just five players. All of them have at least seven, while only one other player (Filppula) has more than one. During the regular season, Tampa Bay's top-five goal scorers accounted for only 54 percent of their total goals.
Fortunately those five players have been dominant and done their part to carry the load, but if Tampa Bay is going to beat this Chicago team it might help if they find some offense somewhere else in the lineup, especially if Joel Quenneville goes for a power vs. power matchup and tries to get Jonathan Toews out against Steven Stamkos.
5. The Lightning speed vs. the Blackhawks defense
One thing to watch in this series is how the Blackhawks defense continues to handle their heavy workload. The Blackhawks' top-four on defense are not only still playing a ton of minutes, they are all still averaging more than 25 minutes per game. Since the NHL started tracking ice-time totals no team has won the Stanley Cup with four defensemen averaging more than 25 minute of ice-time per game in the playoffs.
The expectation all along has been that their defense might start to get worn down as the playoffs continue given that workload, especially in the Western Conference Final against an extremely physical Anaheim Ducks team. But it never happened.
It not only never happened, the Blackhawks seemed to get stronger and played better hockey as the series progressed.
The Lightning present a very different challenge in this series, and instead of relying on the size and force that the Ducks did, they will bring speed and skill to the table. A lot of it.
You know the Blackhawks top-four are going to get quite familiar with Stamkos, Killorn, and the Triplets over the next two weeks, and even though the Blackhawks' third pairing sees very limited minutes it is going to be crucial for Tampa Bay to take advantage of them when they are on the ice.
