Tampa Bay Wins, Closes out Detroit Red Wings; Montreal Awaits in 2nd Round of Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Detroit Red Wings 2-0 April 29th behind goalie Ben Bishop’s 31 saves to win their 1st round Stanley Cup Playoff Series 4-3. This was the last undecided first round series, so all the pieces are in place for Round 2. Tampa Bay advances to the 2nd round and will play the Canadiens in Montreal on May 1st.

Last season, Tampa Bay also played Montreal in the playoffs, with the Canadiens sweeping the Lightning in four straight. However, Bishop was injured and did not play in the series. During the 2014-15 regular season, the Lightning won all five games against Montreal, with Bishop in the nets each time. So does this mean the Lightning should be favored? Not necessarily. Bishop is good, but Montreal has Carey Price as its goalie, and all he did was lead the league in victories (44), goals against average (1.96), and save percentage (.933). The Lightning have be concerned that Steven Stamkos did not score a goal in the entire Red Wing series after scoring 43 (2nd in the league) during the regular season. Also, Tampa Bay converted just two of 30 power play opportunities in the Detroit series, both in Game 2. Montreal was just one of 20 on the power play.

So, with that in mind, we expect a relatively low scoring, close, grind it out series, and no sweep by either team.