Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
With the 2015-16 season approaching, it seems fitting to touch-base and size up the Bruins in comparison to each of their division rivals. The Boston Bruins had a mixed result when playing within their division, and this series of stories will explain what the Bruins have to do, and have to avoid to succeed within the Atlantic Division in the 2015-16 season. The sixth team to be analyzed will be the Tampa Bay Lightning.
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The 2014-15 season was a rough one for the Boston Bruins, mixed with injuries, bad cap-management, and really just poor-effort almost all the way around, which led to the first missed playoffs since the 2006-07 season for the Bruins. The Bruins have had a lot of success against the Tampa Bay Lightning over the last few seasons, however Tampa Bay seems to be catching on with their young lineup.
The two teams split the series with two wins a piece, but the Bruins were able to salvage a point in at least three of the four matchups in the 2014-15 season. The Lightning are arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference and proved it last season by competing in the Stanley Cup Final against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Bruins will need to work hard to recapture their success against the Lightning and it starts with Tuukka Rask.
Tuukka Rask is the last line of defense on the Bruins and is more than capable of stealing games against even the best scoring teams in the league, as the Pittsburgh Penguins learned in the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals. The Tampa Bay Lightning have a lineup that can consistently score with any of their lines, but their most dangerous players are the obvious ones. Steven Stamkos, Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov, and the secondary scoring of the team coupled with their up-and-coming talent like Jonathan Drouin make the Lightning a very dangerous team on the front end. With scoring like the Lightning have, it will be crucial that the Bruins score as many goals as they can against the Lightning in each game to help Rask instead of leaving him out to dry like they did far too often last season.
Puck Prose
The Boston Bruins scoring was nothing short of abysmal in the 2014-15 season and will need to improve moving forward if the Bruins have any intentions of making the playoffs. The goal scoring will start with the usual suspects of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and Loui Eriksson, and David Krejci, and will hopefully catch on with players like Matt Beleskey, Jimmy Hayes, David Pastrnak and Ryan Spooner. The combination of David Pastrnak and Ryan Spooner was the Bruins best offensive weapon down the stretch last season, and will a season of NHL experience under their belts, it will be interesting to see how they continue with their progression.
The Lightning will be no push-over this season, and the Bruins will need help from their defense, forwards, and goalie if they have any hope of taking away very important points in the division. This holds true for every divisional game of the season, and with this series of articles coming to a close, it will be important for the Bruins to realize that they can do some major damage this year to other teams playoff hopes if they can’t make the playoffs themselves.
What do YOU think the Bruins will have to do to succeed against the Florida Panthers this season? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Find out how the Bruins can succeed against the Montreal Canadiens here, the Toronto Maple Leafs here, the Detroit Red Wings here, the Buffalo Sabres here, the Ottawa Senators here, and the Florida Panthers here!