Tampa Bay has replaced that collection of forwards internally (Ross Colton), through free agency (Corey Perry, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare) and at the trade deadline (Brandon Hagel and Nick Paul). But this past offseason salary cap issues forced them to trade Tyler Johnson and say goodbye to their dominant third line of Blake Coleman (Calgary), Yanni Gourde (Seattle), and Barclay Goodrow (New York Rangers). There are a lot of reasons Tampa Bay won the past two Stanley Cups, and its depth beyond its top scorers is one of the biggest. Did Tampa Bay do enough to replace its scoring depth? If they do not, nobody is going to care about their regular season win total (which set a franchise record), or Auston Matthews scoring 60 goals (also a franchise record) and winning a second straight Rocket Richard Award, or Mitch Marner’s point total. They lose as favorites, they lose as underdogs. Two years ago they lost to a Columbus team that had the 14th best points percentage in the league in a play-in series, and last year they lost to a Montreal team that was fourth place in the All-Canada division and then came back this season with the worst record in the league. After all, it is not like Toronto has been losing to heavy favorites lately.
If Toronto loses in the First Round with this core for a sixth consecutive year the city is going to have a meltdown and you have to expect significant changes to come somewhere in the organization. If Tampa Bay loses it might be a disappointment for fans to see their quest for a three-peat come to an end, but they have earned a leash and will get the “well it is tough to win three years in a row” benefit of the doubt. It is pretty obvious which team has the most pressure here, and it is one million percent the Maple Leafs.
#Lightning vs maple leafs series
Toronto? Well, the Maple Leafs have lost in the First Round in each of the past five years despite a big-money, big-talent core while the organization has not won a playoff series of any kind since the 2003-04 playoffs. Since the start of the 2014-15 season Tampa Bay has won a league best 70 playoff games (28 more than the next closest team during that stretch), reached at least the Conference Finals in five of the seven seasons, played in three Stanley Cup Finals, and won the past two Stanley Cups. Talk about two teams with two very different track records over the past seven years. *Game 7: May 14, TBD – Lightning at Maple Leafs (TBD) *Game 6: May 12, TBD – Maple Leafs at Lightning (TBD) *Game 5: May 10, TBD – Lightning at Maple Leafs (TBD) ET – Maple Leafs at Lightning (TBS, Sportsnet, CBC, TVA Sports) ET – Lightning at Maple Leafs (Sportsnet, CBC, TVA Sports, ESPN2) Today, we preview the series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning Maple Leafs vs. The 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs began on Monday, May 2.
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