National Hockey League Preview and Prediction: Tampa Bay Lightning vs Pittsburgh Penguins
It's the Eastern Conference Finals.
Things are continuing to heat up in the National Hockey League as the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning prepare for an intense Eastern Conference Final series. Game 1 is on May 13, 2016 and begins at 8 p.m. ET.
To be played at the Consol Energy Center, both teams should be ready and the Penguins are hopeful that they can start off the series with a win in front of their homecrowd.
Between the two teams, they are coming in with less rest as they battled the Washington Capitals in the semifinals and eliminated their rivals in six games.
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It was a great series for Pittsburgh, who took advantage of the troubles that Washington had and stretched their opponents' defence to eventually beat them 4-2 in the series. However, they are going to face a completely different team as the Lightning are a physical team who can score a bunch of goals at any given time.
Furthermore, the Lightning have had more rest as they ended their series in the semis against the New York Islanders two full days before the Penguins ended theirs.
It only took five games for the Lightning to wrap things up in the semis and in those games, Tampa Bay were only held to less than four goals in one game – Game 4 where they still won 2-1 in extra period. The other games they scored at least four, including a decisive 4-0 shutdown of the Islanders in the closeout game.
Furthermore, the Lightning seem to have the upperhand against the Penguins as they have beaten Pittsburgh in the last three meetings they had.
In those games, Tampa Bay also displayed their excellent scoring touch as they scored 14 goals in those three games to thrash the Penguins. But playing at home, Pittsburgh are hoping that they can win where it matters -- in the playoffs. Pittsburgh are looking forward to pleasing fans with a great performance to win Game 1.
