Lightning Road to Cup Repeat Must Start With Winning the Division

3 years ago  /  The Hockey Writers  /  Read Time: 3 minutes 46 seconds

• The next 10 games for the Tampa Bay Lightningcould give us a clear picture of who is going to win the Central Division this season.
• The Lightning come into the two-game series with Columbus with 10 regulation losses on the season.
• They can both play that way at times, but it’s not either team’s true identity and to beat the Lightning over seven games, it absolutely has to be.
• In most of the games this season against Tampa, both Nashville and Chicago have usually gotten caught up in trying to beat the Bolts at their own game, which is skating and timely scoring with stellar goaltending mixed in.
• Unfortunately, this season for Columbus, they’re in a division with two other teams that play a similar way in Florida and Carolina, and are better at it with more talented rosters. .
• Through the first 38 games, the Lightning has a .684 winning percentage for the season
• If you remove all games played against Carolina and Florida, that gives the Lightning a .750 winning percentage
• The games against the Canes and Cats have been a stalemate, with Tampa going just .500 against both teams

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