High Expectations

The Tampa Bay Lightning  begin their 25th season tonight against the Detroit Red Wings and expectations are higher than ever this fall. The Lightning are coming off two seasons in which they made it to the Stanley cup final and eastern conference final respectively losing to the eventual cup winners in both seasons. Steve Yzerman and his staff had an busy off-season as they were able to sign back their core guys in Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Alex Killorn, and Nikita Kucherov. Basically have the same team coming back looking to get over the hump and win the ultimate prize being the Stanley cup. This team has it all, they just need to stay healthy and put it all together down the stretch of the season and into the playoffs.

The team has probably the best goalie duo in Ben Bishop and Andrei Vasilevskiy whom both have been outstanding over the last two seasons. The team has a big decision to make regarding Bishop as he is entering the final year of his contract. Does the team trade him if the right offer appears and go with Vasilevskiy going into the postseason? I say they don't and let Bishop get one more shot at winning it all, and then in the off-season they can figure that out.

Lightning have what they need to win it all as they have scoring, solid defense, and great goaltending. I think the big keys throughout the season is going to be staying healthy and developing the powerplay enough to make it a strength. If they can do those two things the sky is the limit for this team as they have everything else in place. It all begins tonight, it's going to be a fun season as expectations are high but this team would want it no other way.

Lightning Win Game 5 Advancing to 2nd Round

With goalie Ben Bishop leading the way, the Lightning found a way to win knocking out the Red Wings in 5 games.  Behind a 34 save shutout by Bishop and a clutch goal by Alex Killorn with less than 2 minutes left, the Lightning won 1-0, and are now moving on to the second round to face either the Panthers or Islanders. The Lightning were not at their best last night as it was struggle for them to get anything going offensively, but it didn't matter as Bishop was outstanding. Bishop basically said "I got this guys, just get me one goal", and that's what happen.

It seemed like every Red Wings shot was coming on a breakaway, and Bishop stop every one of them determined to end this series in 5 games. Bishop collected his 4th career shutout in the playoffs as three of them have came on series clinching wins. Bishop has been the best goalie in the league this year, and will need to continue to do so if the Lightning want to get far in the playoffs again. Bishop's size and athleticism is just so rare in a goalie, that at times he is just a brick wall on the ice. He just does a great job of being patient and letting the shots come to him, and overall is just a very smart player.

"You look for a goalie to keep you in it, and in a lot of sense he won us that game," Killorn said. "Second period, (three) breakaways and (if) they score on one, it's a completely different game."

Now with some time to rest before the next series, hopefully the team can fine tune some things especially on defensive zone coverage and their special teams. The next round will be challenging again, but hopefully the team can get healthier and with Bishop playing like he is, the Lightning have a chance against anyone.

.@Benbishop30 has been a brick wall tonight. #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/qPQKSJx4le

— NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) April 22, 2016