NHL: Bruins and Lightning are Restless and Ready for Battle

Tampa Bay and Boston have waited long enough to get the Eastern Conference Finals under way. Two success starved franchises will finally get their series under way on Saturday night.

The mental factor
Both of these teams enter this series in a strange situation. Tampa Bay and Boston swept the Capitals and Flyers respectively. While both were considered capable of making this stage, few would have expected them to win their Semi Final series in such an emphatic fashion. The high that comes with a sweep will have been tempered somewhat for the Lightning and Bruins. Knowing their opponents enter the game on the back of the same kind of convincing win will negate the mental edge. Then there’s the wait, that interminable gap between games. Momentum is so important in the post-season so neither outfit will have been happy to spend so long without playing. How this affects the mindsets of the players involved will be crucial in deciding who comes out on top.

Yzerman’s miracle
After three straight seasons missing out on the NHL Playoffs, the Lightning are just four wins away from returning the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2004. While most franchises have been waiting much longer to get back to the summit of the NHL, most haven’t suffered the misfortunes of Tampa Bay in the last seven years. Their title run was followed immediately by the lockout and two subsequent first round exits in the post-season. Things moved from bad to worse with two straight fifth place finishes in the Southeast Division. Last year provided a glimmer of hope for the future but the real change started with the arrival of Steve Yzerman as general manager a year ago.

Yzerman was followed by new coach Gary Boucher. In came Simon Gagne and Dan Ellis to strengthen the team on the ice. All of a sudden the Lightning were a serious franchise again in the eyes of NHL betting fans. A gutsy first round win over the Penguins followed by the sweep of the Capitals will give them plenty of confidence entering this series.

Consistency pays off
Rene Rancourt has been a fixture at Bruins games for 35 years. The singer has been a fixture in Boston, performing the Canadian and US national anthems. In all that time he has never seen the Bruins lift the Stanley Cup. 1972 was the last time the most cherished prize in Hockey resided in Beantown. Not that the Bruins haven’t had their chances. In recent years they have been the model of consistency, going down in the Eastern Conference Semi Finals each of the last three years. Now they have overcome that hurdle, Rancourt will sing during the Conference Finals for the first time since 1992. No doubt the Lewiston, Maine native relishes the prospect of singing in at least one more series.