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What will make or break the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning?

Sean Leahy
·Contributing writer
What will make or break the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning?

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning are set to do battle to determine which team will represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final. The Lightning were here a year ago, prevailing over the New York Rangers in seven games. Pittsburgh hasn’t been this far in the postseason since their no-show against the Boston Bruins in 2013.

Most of this Lightning roster was on the ice during last year’s Stanley Cup Final, while the Penguins were rebuilt by general manager Jim Rutherford through free agency and key mid-season trades. Tampa has been steady for most of the season, but it was Pittsburgh who needed a major jumpstart following a slow start to the 2015-16 campaign.

Now that each side is four wins away from the Final, what will they need to worry about in order to advance?

Here are three things that will make or break the Penguins and Lightning.

Pittsburgh Penguins

1. Expose Tampa’s defense. Victor Hedman was able to neutralize John Tavares in Round 2, a big reason why the Lightning were able to slow the Islanders. The Penguins are deeper than New York, which means it’ll be on the rest of the Lightning blue line to help Hedman slow the Pittsburgh offense.

2. Can Matt Murray keep this up? Murray calmed fears about the Penguins’ goaltending situation early in their series with the New York Rangers and has remained a steady presence in net. Despite some calls for Mike Sullivan to go to Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 6 against the Washington Capitals, Murray remained the man for Pittsburgh. Through nine starts he’s posted a .951 even strength save percentage. He’s going to need at least a couple of real ugly starts before Fleury regains the starter’s job since he last played on March 25.

3. Keep closing. The Penguins are the only NHL team through the regular season and two playoff rounds to not have suffered a loss when leading after two periods. At 45-0-0, if Pittsburgh is ahead after 40 minutes, you can pretty much chalk up another win. The Lightning have only mustered three wins all year when down after two periods.

Tampa Bay Lightning

1. Be disciplined. Through 10 games, the Lightning have been one of the most undisciplined team in the playoffs. Of the final four teams, Tampa has taken the most penalties (43). While their penalty kill has been strong (88.4 percent kill rate), the Penguins’ power play (27.5 percent success rate) poses more lethal weapons than they’ve faced in the first two rounds.

2. Will Anton Stralman return? Stralman has been skating for some time now after breaking his leg on March 25. He’s spent some time this week in practice alongside his old partner Victor Hedman. When healthy, the two form one of the NHL’s best pairings. It’s looking more and more like Stralman will return at some point during the series, but how much time will he need to get back up to speed, and will that limit his initial effectiveness? (Let’s also not forget there’s an outside chance Steven Stamkos could return as well.)

3. Slow Pittsburgh’s depth. Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby combined for four points against the Washington Capitals in Round 2. That didn’t matter as the line of Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel were dynamite and helped carry the offensive load. These aren’t the Penguins of recent times where if you shut down Crosby and Malkin your chances of winning are great. This Penguins team is reminiscent of the championship squad in 2009 where all four lines are dangerous and can make you pay. Tampa’s been great defensively so far averaging 1.90 goals allowed per game and 29.7 shots allowed per game. But now they’ll face their toughest challenge.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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