Lightning Are Back in the Eastern Conference Finals

The Lightning defeated the Islanders 4-0, winning the series 4-1 and are advancing to the eastern conference finals for the second straight season. This series got off to a shaky start for the Bolts as they came out flat in game 1 losing 5-3, but after that they were able to come up big in key situations leading them to 4 straight wins. Goalie Ben Bishop was outstanding again and pretty much won games 3 and 4 by himself along with some timely goals in overtime that help the Lightning take control of the series. Bishop was great again yesterday collecting his 5th postseason shutout, 4 of them have come in the clinching game.

This Lightning team will go as far as Bishop can take them, and right now it looks like he wants the stanley cup. He just makes everything look so easy and plays with great poise and confidence which makes him such a great goalie. Now it wasn't all Bishop as Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov were terrific as well and came up with huge goals during big moments of the games. This team just has everything flowing their way, and this is without one of their top D-man, and top goal scorer which is really impressive. The coaching staff led by Jon Cooper has done an outstanding job, and their job doesn't get any easier with the next opponent likely to be either the Penguins or Capitals. The good news is that Anton Stralman and JT Brown could be ready for the upcoming series which will only make our defense that much better along with more speed on the ice in Brown.

Back to yesterday's win, the team was flat out dominant and it was funny to watch the Islanders bench as they knew they couldn't do anything to stop it. Lightning were just the better team and it showed in this series, and at times the Lightning just looked unstoppable. Now the Lightning get the chance to rest and can prepare for the next opponent whom will be a much tougher test.