GDT: 4/7/18 - 7:00PM EDT - Tampa Bay @ Carolina

[J T Money]

To be honest, I think the Lightning's greatest accomplishment this year is entering the playoffs healthy.

 

[God King Fudge]

We just came back on yet another non playoff team wants to bleed against us like its the playoffs

So....what exactly do we do when actual playoff teams play us like it's the playoffs because....ya know....it's the playoffs?

I'm just wondering since I've seen that whole "bad teams.play us hard" thing a few times and just interested in how that works.

 

[Flat Ronnie]

The people saying Killorn is bad is mind boggling. He had more quality scoring chances then anyone tonight. Where was Johnson? Where was Kucherov? Palat was 10x worse tonight in spite of the goal. Turnover machine.

Johnson will always get a pass on this board because of 2015 and some mythical "clutch" attibute he has.....

 

[Steazy Doo]

It will be far more of a surprise to see us get past the first round than lose it. If that sounds like an exaggeration then you haven't been paying attention the past three months.

Have you been paying attention to Toronto?

 

[gg720fla]

Come playoffs, it should be these lines.

Stamkos, Miller and Kucherov
Gourde, Point and Cirelli
Palat, Johnson and Killorn
Callahan, Paquette and Kunitz

 

[Bolt 45]

The people saying Killorn is bad is mind boggling. He had more quality scoring chances then anyone tonight. Where was Johnson? Where was Kucherov? Palat was 10x worse tonight in spite of the goal. Turnover machine.

He deserves to take some heat for trying to play drunk.

 

[Steazy Doo]

Come playoffs, it should be these lines.

Stamkos, Miller and Kucherov
Gourde, Point and Cirelli
Palat, Johnson and Killorn
Callahan, Paquette and Kunitz

I like those.

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

Wow..... Best season in team history, may still yet win the Atlantic, have either a team whose offense is Taylor Hall or a green Leafs team that is still years from figuring out how to win and all some of us can do is throw up our hands.

We were in the Final in 2015, our second playoff year with this core. I find the bolded statement awfully dismissive without merit.

 

[Lightning1995]

He wasn't good in OT but Killorn and Johnson were awful the whole freaking game.

Kuch gets lots of praise and it’s well deserved. But I believe he created at least three high level scoring chances for Carolina tonight single handed. He was bad tonight.

 

[Stammertime91]

Lmao what an ending. Couldn't have written this any better than for Carolina to beat us when we needed to win and relying on Florida to win us the Atlantic on the final day of the season. Unreal. Not sure whether to laugh or to flip a table.

Solution: flip a table while laughing

 

[Fabiobest]

No, not really, because then "better" fans will treat you like an idiot for daring to being disappointed in this team.

Consider that I'm not worried about our playoffs run.
I'm not sure NJ would be a perfect fit for us, but I'm sure we're a better team than the Leafs.
But I'm disappointed by this match and the OT situation...
I mean: it seems that our guys were afraid of something...

 

[Lightning1995]

Who would host an ECF between Washington and TB? Assuming Boston wins tomorrow.

 

[FinnLightning26]

Winnipeg
San Jose
Pitt
Tampa

These are likely your second place teams. The historic regular season likely rendered meaningless by a bad Carolina team.

The Lightning have perhaps the most difficult road imaginable in front of them.

Start with Toronto. Tied for 3rd in the entire conference for total points despite playing a long stretch without Mathews. Good goaltending, lots of firepower. Questionable D. Like looking in the mirror. I do think our D is a little better but this will be a very entertaining series. And it will go deep.

Boston will boat race NJ and be well rested for the Lightning. Or god forbid, Toronto.

Follow that up with either Pitt or Washington. Then hopethe cup final.

An absolute gauntlet.

The playoffs will be a gauntlet either way. You have to be able to beat any team if you want to win the Cup. Are we able to do that? A couple of months ago I would've said absolutely. Now I don't know. All I know is there has to be some changes if we choke this season away. I hope it doesn't come to that.

 

[Stammertime91]

Also need to add, Boston has no desire to play Toronto. It's like playing us. I have little confidence they bottle it tomorrow.

 

[Steazy Doo]

We were in the Final in 2015, our second playoff year with this core. I find the bolded statement awfully dismissive without merit.

Yeah, Toronto could break out huge and nobody would be surprised.

 

[These Are The Days]

So....what exactly do we do when actual playoff teams play us like it's the playoffs because....ya know....it's the playoffs?

I'm just wondering since I've seen that whole "bad teams.play us hard" thing a few times and just interested in how that works.

Because it's not worth bleeding for Buffalo and Carolina when we need to be bleeding for New Jersey or Pittsburgh. So many of us are concerned with the level of effort we've seen and I've seen a team that is scared out of it's mind that it's gonna get to the promised land on one leg. Take it for what it's worth. Girardi is down over 40 blocked shots from 2 years ago when he played 2 less games (74)

There's a factor that's easy to overlook. We're getting this team back next year. If we don't win maybe we fire the coach. Whatever, it happens all the time. But this is a champion team. There REALLY IS tomorrow for us. It's not much consolation but I'm not gonna rip my hair out and shake my fists at the heavens if we lose a game 7 in OT vs a Bruins team that has been absolutely insane this year because God knows we're practically playing the ECF a round early

 

[gg720fla]

I still think if you had to blame one guy for this loss tonight it would be Killorn. He had 3 beautiful scoring chances tonight and couldn't bury one of them to win this game. Got to get a goal in one of those 3 opportunities.

 

[FinnLightning26]

Who would host an ECF between Washington and TB? Assuming Boston wins tomorrow.

Tampa I believe because we had more points.

 

[These Are The Days]

To be honest, I think the Lightning's greatest accomplishment this year is entering the playoffs healthy.

x100

 

[Lightning1995]

The playoffs will be a gauntlet either way. You have to be able to beat any team if you want to win the Cup. Are we able to do that? A couple of months ago I would've said absolutely. Now I don't know. All I know is there has to be some changes if we choke this season away. I hope it doesn't come to that.

This moncho BS about you have to beat the best, Yada Yada Yada is insane. You want the best matchup possible round one. Survive and advance. We would wax NJ IMO. Toronto will be a dogfight and it will take things out of this team.

There is a decent chance we will regret tonight when trying to dig deep vs Boston.

 

[These Are The Days]

Lmao what an ending. Couldn't have written this any better than for Carolina to beat us when we needed to win and relying on Florida to win us the Atlantic on the final day of the season. Unreal. Not sure whether to laugh or to flip a table.

Solution: flip a table while laughing

lmao I love it

@The Gongshow get the tables!

 

[Bolt 45]

Winnipeg
San Jose
Pitt
Tampa

These are likely your second place teams. The historic regular season likely rendered meaningless by a bad Carolina team.

The Lightning have perhaps the most difficult road imaginable in front of them.

Start with Toronto. Tied for 3rd in the entire conference for total points despite playing a long stretch without Mathews. Good goaltending, lots of firepower. Questionable D. Like looking in the mirror. I do think our D is a little better but this will be a very entertaining series. And it will go deep.

Boston will boat race NJ and be well rested for the Lightning. Or god forbid, Toronto.

Follow that up with either Pitt or Washington. Then hopethe cup final.

An absolute gauntlet.

That's the way the NHL works. Every single year. Try not to be so melodramatic.

 

[Lightning1995]

You can tell Coop in the postgame fully understands what was lost tonight.

 

[gg720fla]

I don't care at this point in time who we play first in the playoffs. If we play hard every game and give it our all and lose, so be it. But I will be one pissed off fan if they don't give it their all every freaking game and minute they are on the ice. I surely hope we don't lose games because we get outcoached .

 

[Steazy Doo]

This moncho BS about you have to beat the best, Yada Yada Yada is insane. You want the best matchup possible round one. Survive and advance. We would wax NJ IMO. Toronto will be a dogfight and it will take things out of this team.

There is a decent chance we will regret tonight when trying to dig deep vs Boston.

We've played Toronto waaaay better then NJ this year. So if you wanna talk purely matchups, then this is what we would want. If you wanna talk home ice, winning the divisoon, etc, it's a disappointing loss.