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Eastern Conference: Round 1 - #1 Tampa Bay Lightning vs. #2 WC New Jersey Devils


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Eastern Conference: Round 1 - #1 Tampa Bay Lightning vs. #2 WC New Jersey Devils  

9 members have voted

  1. 1. Who wins the series?

    • Lightning Sweep 4-0
    • Lightning in 5
    • Lightning in 6
    • Lightning in 7
    • Devils Sweep 4-0
      0
    • Devils in 5
      0
    • Devils in 6
    • Devils in 7
      0


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All discussion regarding the Bolts / Devils series goes here.

 

Lightning (A1) vs. Devils (WC2)

Game 1: April 12 at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m.
Game 2: April 14 at Tampa Bay, 3 p.m.
Game 3: April 16 at New Jersey, 7:30 p.m.
Game 4: April 18 at New Jersey, 7:30 p.m.
*Game 5: April 21 at Tampa Bay, TBD
*Game 6: April 23 at New Jersey, TBD
*Game 7: April 25 at Tampa Bay, TBD

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Bolts in a sweep. Too much for the Devils to handle at every level and in every line.

 

  The Devils are a fun story, Taylor Hall was probably the games most valuable player to his team this season, without him they are fighting for the first pick in the draft, with him they were downright deadly. Maroon and Grabner were solid additions at the deadline and Palmieri came back healthy.

  I don't trust their goaltending. Or their young average defense. Just not enough as the Bolts will steamroll them. The Devils might win one game tops.

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My head says Tampa in 6, my heart says Devils in 7. Vasilevsky struggled down the stretch (he gave up 3 or more goals in 12 of his last 17 games) and I think the Devils could steal a game or two early to make it a series. Ultimately I do think Tampa's edge on talent and depth wins out, but the Devils have been confounding the "experts" all season, so why not keep it up?

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1 hour ago, MadDevil said:

My head says Tampa in 6, my heart says Devils in 7. Vasilevsky struggled down the stretch (he gave up 3 or more goals in 12 of his last 17 games) and I think the Devils could steal a game or two early to make it a series. Ultimately I do think Tampa's edge on talent and depth wins out, but the Devils have been confounding the "experts" all season, so why not keep it up?

 

The Devils :devils: certainly confounded barely-expert me. :) 

 

It'd be some kind of upset if they could upset Tampa here. 

I have the Bolts :lightning: winning the whole Stanley enchilada. 

But that means mostly squat til all games get sorted. 

 

Most of all I'm so pumped about the Playoffs being back! 

Christmas (Part Two) here we come! :playing-hockey-smiley-emoticon: :hockey-goal-scoring-smiley-emoticon: 

 

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I know it's stating the obvious, but goaltending is going be important. If the second half Vasilevsky shows up, the Devils might have a chance. If the clock strikes twelve on Kinkaid and he turns back into a pumpkin it'll be over quickly.

 

I'm just hoping the Devils don't get swept. They've never been swept in a playoff series before. I'd like to keep it that way. Anything else is pretty much gravy since I thought the road trip they had late in the season would knock them out entirely.

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Lightning played a pretty complete game, their defense was reasonably robust, and Vasilevskiy was sharp.

For the meantime, the Bolts have re-asserted themselves and showed why they are the East's #1 team.

 

Stamkos, Kucherov (EN goal aside), and Hedman weren't real big factors on offense and that could be a source of worry for the Devils because the 2nd and 3rd lines played up to par.

 

Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn...two guys Bolts fans give lots of guff to (admittedly, their regular seasons are less than impressive), are guys who show up in the post season.

They have the track record in that regard to back that up.  They showed up tonight once again.

 

Nice win for the Bolts....looking for more of the same on Saturday.

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Is there a bigger 'big game' player today than Tyler Johnson? I hate the little punk for the way he owns my Wings but wow you gotta respect his game.

 

  The Devils had an answer for the Bolts top line but absolutely no answer for the line of Johnson, point and Palat. Devils fans, trust me, I know how that feels to watch, that damn second line is probably the best second line in the game today.....

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The Devils looked very much like a team with a bunch of playoff inexperience last night. They didn't play well at all in the first period, but battled back to make it a game before they shot themselves in the foot with a bad turnover that led to an odd man rush and Tampa getting a 4-2 lead.

 

I still think they can at least make this an interesting series, but they can't make as many mistakes as they did in game 1. Tampa is just too talented and will make them pay.

 

They could really use the good version of Severson, but that version of him vanished a couple weeks ago and is now watching from the press box. And as much as Boyle has been a feel good story, he's really just too slow for this kind of series. Also, hey Grabner, you feel like doing something? Anything? So far that trade has been a complete failure.

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5 hours ago, MadDevil said:

The Devils looked very much like a team with a bunch of playoff inexperience last night. They didn't play well at all in the first period, but battled back to make it a game before they shot themselves in the foot with a bad turnover that led to an odd man rush and Tampa getting a 4-2 lead.

 

I still think they can at least make this an interesting series, but they can't make as many mistakes as they did in game 1. Tampa is just too talented and will make them pay.

 

They could really use the good version of Severson, but that version of him vanished a couple weeks ago and is now watching from the press box. And as much as Boyle has been a feel good story, he's really just too slow for this kind of series. Also, hey Grabner, you feel like doing something? Anything? So far that trade has been a complete failure.

 Busy watching the CBJ but from what I saw the Devils did a lot of standing around watching, letting the Bolts carry the play, at least early. if they keep that up it will be a quick series regardless of who is in net. Tampa is the one team that you absolutely cannot do this with. If you let them carry the play 100 out of 100 tmes they will kill you. Trust me, as a Wings fan who was watched the Bolts kill my boys with regularity since the Harding administration I know of what I speak, lol. The only way to beat the Bolts is to force the play, they don't like that kind of game. 

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Game 2 about to start.

 

I want to see if the Lightning fully realized how well they played and they go out and execute with the same seriousness and intensity.

If they can, then this series is moving to 2-0 for TB.

 

That said, despite the loss, Taylor Hall was, well, Taylor Hall. He was involved in the Devils scoring and the Bolts did manage to contain him somewhat...but he is ALWAYS a threat to hang a 3 or 4 pt night on any team.....and if he become too much of a problem and then TB is forced to allocate more defensive resources to keeping him in check, that will definitely free up the ice for some other capable NJ scorers.

 

Bottom line:

Execution, intensity and containing Hall are the mission for the Bolts today.

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6 hours ago, OccamsRazor said:

Devils looks to have lost the steam they built at the end of the year.

 

Bolts just to deep and talented. No real weakness in their game.

 

Only the Bolts can stop the Bolts.

 

Bolts are an extra special team this time around 

given that they have Stamkos to begin these playoffs. 

It's incredible how good they've been over the 

last few years even when he's been hurt. 

 

I've got them taking the whole thing. I hope they get 

a game-winner against Nashville right after Subban

trips over his own feet. :dizzysmiley-1: I don't hate on the 

whole team--but PK = punkass.  

 

 

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3 hours ago, Samifan said:

Devils may be able to take the engery from the 43 fans they will have at Game 3 and put up a better effort. 

 

Would love to see the Bolts sweep them!

 

:lol: Only 43 fans?! Somebody(ies) in NJ and NHL marketing 

better get fired! :D 

 

Cheers, Sam. Hope you're diggin these playoffs so far. 

 

:toast:    

 

 

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On 4/13/2018 at 12:10 PM, yave1964 said:

 Busy watching the CBJ but from what I saw the Devils did a lot of standing around watching, letting the Bolts carry the play, at least early. if they keep that up it will be a quick series regardless of who is in net. Tampa is the one team that you absolutely cannot do this with. If you let them carry the play 100 out of 100 tmes they will kill you. Trust me, as a Wings fan who was watched the Bolts kill my boys with regularity since the Harding administration I know of what I speak, lol. The only way to beat the Bolts is to force the play, they don't like that kind of game. 

 

I definitely see what you're talking about. The Devils didn't really start playing their game today until they were down by 3 goals. Once they started to pressure they finally started to create some chances. If they have any hope of making this a series they need to come out flying Monday night and keep on them. Ironically they need to take the advice of a former Tampa coach...safe is death.

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NJ Devils feeling change is in order....... Cory Schneider re-inserted as the starter.

 

He will either prevent the Bolts from putting a stranglehold on the series, or TB will do to him what they have been doing to Keith Kinkaid... put up 5 goals a game.

 

Skaters are gonna have to help out Schneider though.

Minimizing turnovers and capitalizing on chances the Lightning give them will be keys for NJ.

 

For the most part, TB has managed to contain Taylor Hall and his line.

With the Devils now having home ice, Coach Hynes may be able to get the match ups he wants more often than not, and thus, more chances for Hall and his group to break out and do what they do.

 

That said, the Lightning have been doing well with all four lines, so even with last change, the Devils may be hard pressed to find an "easy" match up for their team to exploit.

 

Puck drop in about 5 minutes from The Rock...

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Hall was finally able to get free tonight, getting a point on the Devils first 3 goals, and Schneider did enough to hold the fort in goal, although it looked like he might have tweaked something in the 3rd period. And a little hatred starting to grow between the two teams now that they've had a few games to get sick of each other. Game 4 should be interesting.

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1 hour ago, MadDevil said:

By the way, WTF to Hedman giving Nico a stick to the balls. That was some cheap ****.

that was surprisingly cheap.

I liked that the Devils never went away last night and playing shorthanded actually gave them some life. 

Got lucky on the two 175 ft goals, but, a w is a w.

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