Tampa Bay Lightning all set to eliminate Washington Capitals in Game 4 – NHL Play-offs Preview
After three consecutive wins against the Eastern Conference’s top team, the Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay is all ready and pumped up to finally throw them out and advance into the next round on Wednesday when they meet up for game four.
The Lightning has been surging with excitement and confidence which has the whole team in a good mood. With a 3-0 lead in the National Hockey League (NHL) play-off semi-finals, Tampa Bay has four games to eliminate the Capitals which they have proved are
easily capable of doing.
Come Wednesday at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa Bay, Florida, the home crowd will certainly come prepared for a celebration which they have not had the chance to make since winning the Stanley Cup in 2004 against the Calgary Flames. Up until now, there
was nobody who could predict that Tampa Bay would go so far into the post-season and that too up against teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals.
During the quarter-finals, as expected, the Lightning was on the brink of being ousted from the series after a 3-1 deficit after game four against the Penguins. Amazingly, they bounced back and won three consecutive games to finally end the series in their
favour in a deciding game seven. Some might think that the same situation might happen against them, but the NHL’s leader in goals, Steven Stamkos has expressed his confidence in keeping his team’s performance consistent in the remaining games.
"We can't let up," Stamkos said. "You see in the Vancouver series (against Chicago) what happens when you do. Games 4 and 5 were blowouts for Chicago and they got the momentum right back in the series and they went to 7. We can't make that mistake."
Six consecutive victories later, the Lightning are performing in just the same way which has worked miracles for them. One of their biggest factors which have led them to winning is their veteran goalie, Dwayne Roloson. He has had to face young and talented
goalies in both the quarter-finals and now the semi-finals. In Pittsburgh, Marc-Andre Fleury had put up a good fight, but Roloson emerged victorious in the battle between the young and experienced. Now, he is up against the 23-year-old Michal Neuvirth who
has been playing well, blocking 10 of the total 76 shots in the series but still under Roloson.
Tampa Bay knows that winning the fourth game will be the most difficult task they have had to face yet. Washington is confident that they will be able to recover and takeover the series. "It's not over," Washington star Alex Ovechkin said. "They win three.
We can win three."
The Capitals are using a few recent examples of a late recover for their inspiration which include the Boston vs. Philadelphia series during the previous play-offs and the Vancouver vs. Chicago quarter-finals this time around. The Boston Bruins were ahead
3-0, just like Tampa Bay, but Philadelphia managed to overcome those losses and win four straight to advance. Chicago was also down 3-0 prior to winning three in a row and forcing a game seven in which they lost. Looking into history, Washington will be the
fourth team to do so if they can achieve the task of bouncing back to win the remaining four games.
Nevertheless, Tampa Bay has the example of what Detroit did to the Phoenix Coyotes in the quarter-finals. The Red Wings made a clean sweep (4-0) against a team which was supposedly going to penetrate deep into the play-offs.
Washington certainly does have the capabilities to do what Philadelphia did last year, but the way they have been playing is not enough to prove their chances of a come-back. Both teams will play in game four on Wednesday in Tampa Bay, Florida at 7:00 PM
ET.
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