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Stanley Cup Playoffs: Florida Panthers vs Tampa Bay Lightning
The moment has finally arrived and it's the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Florida Panthers enter the playoffs looking to repeat and defend the title. The Panthers finished the regular season 47-31 sitting third in the Atlantic Division and finishing fifth in the Eastern Conference. Florida dealt with many injuries down the stretch to key players. You get the sense that Paul Maurice was saving all ammunition for the playoffs to give themselves a chance to repeating.
The Tampa Bay Lightning who will be facing the Panthers in the first round and who are no stranger to their rivals in the playoffs finished the season 47-26 in second of the Atlantic Division. The Lightning would also go ahead and finish the season in third of the Eastern Conference. Tampa had a remarkable turnaround in the season while sitting mostly at the bottom of the conference between sixth and eighth but really picked it up in the second half of the season topping the Panthers to finish above them.
What can we expect?
We can definitely expect a very physical series between the two rivals as the series will begin at the Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay. The Panthers are expecting for Matthew Tkachuk to return for game one of the series after suffering an injury in the nations face-off that sidelined him the rest of the regular season. Tampa looks to rely on its experience of winning in the playoffs although they haven't owned the state of Florida in recent years. It will all depend on Andrei Vasilevskiy making saves for Tampa and the offense being able to score goals. The biggest challenge for the Panthers is staying healthy and disciplined after many key players missed time forcing Maurice to play many different lineups.
Written by: Daniel Torres
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