Boston Bruins: Will Tampa Be Tougher This Year?
The Boston Bruins and their habitual success over the Tampa Bay Lightning during the regular season got interesting last year. The Lightning actually beat the Bruins, twice.
It was the first time since the 2011-12 regular season that the Lighting defeated the Black and Gold. It was also just last season that Tampa found themselves in the Stanley Cup Final. It took several seven-game and one six-game series to earn their bid for the Cup. It was their first appearance in the Cup Final since the team won it in 2004.
As for the regular season series between the Bruins and Lightning in 2014-15, it was closer than years past. In the four games played last season, both teams won a pair. The Lightning were a better team last season, evident by their Stanley Cup appearance. And with that, they played better against a team that has given them trouble over the years.
In the lockout shortened 2012-13 season, in which the teams only met three times, the Bruins won all three meetings. The following season, in 2013-14, the B’s took all four matches.
During the Stanley Cup winning season of 2010-11, the B’s took the season series, 3-1. In 2009-10, 2-2. In 2008-09, 3-1; all in favor of Boston. Tampa hasn’t won a season series against the Bruins in this entire decade, per hockeyreference.com.
Then comes last season, in which the Lightning scored 13 goals against Boston, while the Bruins scored 12 goals against Tampa. It was another year in which the Lightning did not beat up on the Bruins enough to win the season series, but they were a changed team. From a numbers standpoint, TB faired well against the B’s. Their team plus-minus in the season series was plus-five, compared to Boston’s plus-two. In goaltending, Tampa’s Ben Bishop stood tall against Boston. Bishop played in each of the four meetings, finishing 2-1 against the Bruins. His GAA was 2.65, with a SV% of .915, compared to Tuukka Rask‘s GAA of 3.04 and a .882 SV% in all four games. Overall, it was a close seasons series.
Moving ahead to this year, the Lightning will have a similar roster compared to last season. Here are their projected starting forward lines from dailyfaceoff.com:
The only change from last season lies on their fourth line, with the new addition of Erik Condra from Ottawa.
As for defense, it will be the prototypical blue line for Tampa once again with Victor Hedman leading the way:
Coming off their Stanley Cup run, the Lightning will be hungry for another opportunity at winning the Cup. They’ll need their No. 1 player, though, to help win it. Stamkos, who scored 3 goals in the season series against the B’s, had 0 goals in the Cup Final. Stamkos failed to score in the last 8 games of the playoffs. Tampa needs their best player, arguably the best scorer in league, to produce if they want another crack at the Cup.
As for the Bruins next season against Tampa, they’ll meet for the first time next season on Halloween in Tampa. While the Lightning are assembled similar to what they were like last year, the Bruins are not. It will be interesting to see if Tampa can finally toughen up against Boston and win a season series.